Top court finalizes life term for election shooter

Lin Cheng-wei (林正偉) shot Sean Lien in New Taipei City on Nov. 26, 2010 on the eve of the island's mayoral and city councilor elections. Lien was campaigning for a KMT candidate. Lin was apprehended on the spot.

Based on the verdict, which upholds an earlier finding by the Taiwan High Court, Lin no longer has any avenues for appeal. He will also have his electoral rights deprived for life.

In late October 2012, the high court overruled a verdict handed down by a local district court in May in which Lin Cheng-wei was sentenced to 24 years in jail for multiple offenses.

Lin's shot went through Lien's face and killed bystander Huang Yun-sheng. Lien later recovered from his wounds. The local district court found Lin guilty of attempting to murder Lien and of negligent manslaughter regarding Huang's death.

While the high court upheld the attempted murder conviction related to the shooting of Lien, it changed the negligent manslaughter conviction involving the bystander to murder after determining that Lin had the “eventual intent” to kill.

According to the latest verdict, Lin was wrestling with Lien before pulling the trigger but still insisted on firing his gun at the dodging Lien without any regard for the possibility of hurting other people. Even when Lin was besieged after the shooting, he still attempted to get off another shot, the court said.

Lin claimed that his target was Chen Hung-yuan but that he shot Lien after mistaking him for Chen.

Lien, however, believed he was the real target of the shooting because, according to his version of events, Lin called his name and cursed at him before firing the shot.

Lien called for related departments to continue investigating parts of the case, including where Lin's firearm and ammunition came from, his intended targets and motivations and whether Lin had an accomplice.

SHARE CLOSE
Blogger		Google+
Live Journal		Plurk
Stumble Upon

Tweet

	PREVIOUS ARTICLE
	Merger of Taipei, New Taipei, Keelung an inevitability: Hau

NEXT ARTICLE
KMT again rejects rumor of Ma using US Constitution as defense

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email

Submit