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Updated Wednesday, February 10, 2010 9:28 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Abolishing death penalty is right; but new laws needed

Actress Bai Bing-bing was in the news recently claiming — in what we hope was hyperbole — she would commit suicide if Taiwan goes through with a plan to phase out capital punishment. Bai also volunteered to act as an executioner. Bai's emotional response is completely understandable; in 1997 her young daughter was kidnapped, tortured and killed by the infamous rapist, murderer and kidnapper, Chen Ching-hsing, who was executed in 1999. Taiwan's Minister of Justice, Wang Ching-feng, said that there are no plans to immediately abolish capital punishment in Taiwan, but that the international trend is moving away from executions. In fact there have been no applications of the death penalty in Taiwan since 2006, but 44 inmates remain on death row. For now Taiwan has, in practice, suspended capital punishment.

It is difficult to try and convince many people that the death penalty is an outmoded form of justice, even though many studies have proven that capital punishment is not a deterrent to serious crime. Recently, several American states suspended their use of the death penalty after troubling findings that may end up proving that innocent people have been executed. These academic issues mean nothing to a family that has suffered a loss due to violent crime. The justice minister is correct in saying that Taiwan should move away from capital punishment, but before we can take the final step of abolition, Taiwan's laws must be changed so that its people can feel confident that should a heinous crime occur, the perpetrator will remain behind bars — possibly forever. A troubling recent case involved the murder of a kindergarten teacher. The man who killed her had killed a previous girlfriend some 16 years earlier and had been sentenced to roughly nine years in prison. Owing to a change in Republic of China (R.O.C.) law, the man was released after serving less than three years. He then killed again. A murderer receiving a sentence of less than ten years in prison is unfathomable.

As we understand it, Taiwan does not currently have a “life-without-the-possibility-of-parole” statute as many other nations do. Taiwan's lawmakers should make revising sentencing laws a major priority. All too often we hear of cases where a person commits a serious criminal offense — such as killing someone while driving drunk — and receives only a light sentence. Moving away from the death penalty is “the right thing to do.” However, before Taiwan's people can feel confident in supporting the abolition of capital punishment, they must be convinced that criminals will pay for their crimes. Taiwan's government must look into establishing or enforcing a law that allows serious offenders to be given a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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Comments

February 11, 2010 hakkaklkhtwlee@

No parole life sentence has not yet become part of Taiwanese Criminal Law, so death sentence remains perhaps the final deterrent against the commission of heinous crimes. Your editorial is quite a balanced article worth reading by the general public. My underlying concern or fear is that innocent people could have been executed in the heat of vengeance against the social outcast. A healthy debate about this issue in the highest legislative body, would be desirable before the final decision is made into law.

February 12, 2010 cigars898@

"...many studies have proven that capital punishment is not a deterrent to serious crime." Who cares. It's a consequence not a deterrent. The brutal acts committed by those facing the death penalty were not heat of the moment murders, they were premeditated or committed by some psycho that would do it again and again. This article makes it sound like Taiwan is executing people every other day like the Chicoms. Think what keeping these people alive does to the prison system. How is it our responsibility to rehabilitate these monsters, let them reckon with God.

February 13, 2010 carltanong@

cigars898
Would you mind giving us some pointers of how the Saudi Arabian gov't punished the criminals who committed heinous crimes down to those criminals who committed mere crimes? How the Saudi Arabian gov't protects her law abiding citizens?

February 14, 2010 cigars898@

I have no idea what you think the Saudis and Taiwan have in common. I do know that the Saudi's follow Sharia Law if that helps you out. Please explain yourself.

February 16, 2010 carltanong@

cigars898
Oh I see. Whenever you failed to explained in writing arguments, you will just post "Please explain yourself". It's just similar in the restaurants "EAT ALL YOU CAN, BUT PLEASE SERVE YOURSELF".

February 17, 2010 cigars898@

carltanong@ wrote:
cigars898
Oh I see. Whenever you failed to explained in writing arguments, you will just post "Please explain yourself". It's just similar in the restaurants "EAT ALL YOU CAN, BUT PLEASE SERVE YOURSELF".

I'll type slowly so you can understand. What did I fail to explain? Your 1st statement, in relationship to the article, is irrational. Is there anything written about Saudi Arabia in the article? Are you concerned that Taiwan is going to implement Sharia Law? Do you know what Sharia Law is?

February 19, 2010 smokingisbad@

@carltanong
Save yourself the trouble trying to reason with "cigars898". He's the same gentleman behind most comments in this section attacking anything that even vaguely resembles like democracy. Have a look at past editorial comments (shouldn't be too difficult; they are scarce) and look for irrational and non-relevant remarks in which the author enjoys SHOUTING at people -- in particular whenever the topic is Taiwan's ex-president Chen.

February 20, 2010 carltanong@

@smokingisbad
You are right. This cigars898 is critically ill. He uses different pennames and all his comments and styles are one man with many faces. Shouting, crying like a baby, fearing that a bullet will pierce the inside of his skull etc etc etc and blah blah blah. And most of all, he changed his own topics and diverted into other topics. Look at his above statements. He doesn’t understand what he writes and in turn asks me what he writes. Hee hee. Like corrupt Chen. Today it’s 5 "YES". Tomorrow it’s 5 "NO".
Let him type slowly. Anyway, he doesn't know what topics he is typing. And eventually, cigar898 will request me to explain what he is typing.

February 20, 2010 tsaiyunghsia8263@

//"...many studies have proven that capital punishment is not a deterrent to serious crime." Who cares. It's a consequence not a deterrent.//

Who cares? As a Taiwanese citizen, I do. It is exactly such knee-jerk impulsive decisions that our legal system should guard against. Just wanted to register my support for the anti-capital punishment camp.

February 20, 2010 smokingisbad@

carltanong@ and cigars898@, from smokingisbad

Correction: I mistakenly switched your email-names!
Sorry about that to both gentleman.
But I - unintentionally - may have proved that this paper's editorial comment reviewer seems to be rather selective in what comments he or she decides to publish.

February 20, 2010 cigars898@

tsaiyunghsia8263@ wrote:
//"...many studies have proven that capital punishment is not a deterrent to serious crime." Who cares. It's a consequence not a deterrent.//

Who cares? As a Taiwanese citizen, I do. It is exactly such knee-jerk impulsive decisions that our legal system should guard against. Just wanted to register my support for the anti-capital punishment camp.

How is that a knee-jerk impulsive decision? I never said anything about expediting trials or throwing at facts and evidence to get a guilty verdict. Is no capital punishment a deterrent? I absolutely agree that the courts should be very sure of their decision but I think if you throw a baby in a pot of boiling water to prove a point, you don't deserve to live.

February 20, 2010 cigars898@

carltanong@ wrote:
@smokingisbad
You are right. This cigars898 is critically ill. He uses different pennames and all his comments and styles are one man with many faces. Shouting, crying like a baby, fearing that a bullet will pierce the inside of his skull etc etc etc and blah blah blah. And most of all, he changed his own topics and diverted into other topics. Look at his above statements. He doesn’t understand what he writes and in turn asks me what he writes. Hee hee. Like corrupt Chen. Today it’s 5 "YES". Tomorrow it’s 5 "NO".
Let him type slowly. Anyway, he doesn't know what topics he is typing. And eventually, cigar898 will request me to explain what he is typing.

Still laughing.

February 22, 2010 carltanong@

Sorry. The receiver is out of reach at this moment. Please try to post your messages later. Thank you.

February 23, 2010 carltanong@

@smokingisbad
Rest assured that all the Ladies and Gentlemen of this paper editorial comment reviewer did not select and decide which comment to be publish. Maybe cigars898 blocked all your comments in China Post. Hee hee. Or the smoke from cigars898 contains unknown viruses that blocked the eyes of the reviewers. Heehee.