Taiwan: Life imprisonment mulled as alternative to death penalty

A task force set up by the Ministry of Justice to deliberate issues concerning the possible abolition of the death penalty has recently concluded that it would be possible to replace capital punishment with a sentence of life without parole in Taiwan.

DRAFT LAW

The ministry said it hoped to draft a law to that effect by the end of November next year.

According to a ministry official, the task force reached the conclusion in a meeting on Friday during which most members agreed that such an alternative — life imprisonment replacing the death penalty — would probably be acceptable to most Taiwanese, although a few committee members questioned whether “imprisonment until death” was more inhuman than capital punishment.

INHUMAN

The ministry said that while more than 70 percent of people oppose the abolition of the death penalty, support for abolition increases when life imprisonment without parole is offered as an alternative.

The task force concluded that Taiwanese would be amenable to such an alternative punishment, the official said.

LIFE IMPRISONMENT

Taiwan carried out its first executions in five years in April after then-justice minister Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) spoke out in early March in favor of a ban on the death penalty. Her stance drew complaints from victims’ families that the government was not obeying the law.

The country currently has 44 inmates on death row.

Source: Tapei Times, October 16-17, 2010