This year, a legal process has created discussions about whether or not the death penalty should be used in Taiwan. In September, the Constitutional Court's verdict finally came. The death penalty is maintained, but its exercise is limited. The reactions were not long in coming.
Taiwan's judiciary must continue to be able to issue the death penalty, albeit with certain reservations. This was announced on Friday 20 September. After a protracted process came domen from the Constitutional Court which announces that the right to life must be protected but that the protection does not make executions of persons guilty of crimes impossible.
Today is over 70 percent of the world's countries by law or in practice abolished the death penalty. This development has particularly accelerated in recent decades. In Taiwan, the death penalty has remained, but changes to the law have been made over the years, including in 2006, when the mandatory death penalty was abolished for certain crimes.
During the year, the death penalty was once again on the agenda after the Constitutional Court initiated a judicial review of the death penalty at the request of the 37 prisoners who between the years 2000 and 2020 were sentenced to death in Taiwanese courts.
The defense had argued that the death penalty went against the plaintiff's constitutionally protected right to life, that the plaintiff's defense was inadequate, and that special consideration should be given to people with mental illness and cognitive difficulties.
The court reasons that the death penalty should now only be applied to "the most serious crimes" such as premeditated murder and kidnapping for ransom. At the same time, they draw attention to the fact that legal certainty needs to be strengthened in legal cases that could lead to a death sentence. This includes, among other things, that defenders should be present during the criminal investigation phase and that decisions on death sentences must be unanimous.
They also believe that the death penalty should not be issued to people with mental illness or conditions that either impair their judgment at the time of the crime or that make them incapable of standing trial.
Both sides critical of the court's decision
- They tried to be all right, but for us it is a very, very disappointing decision, Tsuying Liang from the civil rights organization The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) tells Uttvecklingsmagasinet.
Several civil rights organizations, such as Amnesty, The Death Penalty Project and Judicial Reform Foundation have expressed their disappointment at the verdict. TAEDP is one of the organizations that supported the 37 prisoners during the legal trial.
Liang sees the verdict as a compromise. In her opinion, the court tried to keep all sides happy. Those who are in favor of the death penalty will see it preserved. While for those who are against the death penalty, they can see a certain victory partly in that there are more protective measures for people who risk being sentenced to death, partly in that the 37 existing prisoners get the chance to appeal.
Some lawmakers from Taiwan's nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) political party do not want to see further restrictions on the use of the death penalty, the news agency writes focus taiwan. Wu Tsung-Hsien believes that the verdict makes it virtually impossible to sentence anyone to the death penalty and that it would not deliver the justice that the victims and their families deserve.
Lawmakers Huang Chien-pin and Yu Hao believe that if criminals could escape death, the public would not feel safe.
Both the Constitutional Court and KMT legislators argue that the death penalty would deter the public from committing crimes. Liang disagrees with them.
- This is total nonsense. Much research shows that there is no connection between the presence or absence of the death penalty and homicide rates, she believes.
The view of the death penalty - pif you ask, you get an answer
En opinion poll among Taiwanese aged 20 and over, released earlier this year by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, showed an absolute majority in favor of the death penalty. 84,6 percent wanted to keep the death penalty while 10 percent were for its abolition.
If the court had decided to abolish the death penalty, 69,5 percent answered that they would consider the decision unacceptable, while 24,2 percent would accept it.
In the court's press release, they say they must consider the public's feelings about the death penalty and their needs and demands for retribution, Liang says.
- They should govern based on the spirit of the constitution and not public opinion, she comments.
At the same time, it is possible to question how representative these opinion polls really are. According to Liang, there are binary questions being asked and that a third option, such as life imprisonment or similar, could change the outcome of the investigations.
When respondents were presented with five real-life murder scenarios, the research found that there is only "low or moderate support for abolishing the death penalty," a study on public opinion on the death penalty in Taiwan, published by The Death Penalty Project in collaboration with TAEDP. The study also shows that there seems to be limited knowledge when it comes to basic substantive issues connected to the death penalty.
Taiwan's Constitutional Court ruling on the death penalty has drawn criticism from both supporters and opponents, and the death penalty remains a debate in Taiwan. It is clear that this decisive decision will determine futures, both for individuals and society. Time will tell if this "compromise" is permanent or if it is one step among many towards the abolition of the death penalty in Taiwan.
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