On April 23, a meeting was held on the island to consider whether the 37 death row inmates currently awaiting execution on the island were illegal, raised by the lawyers' group, and to hold a public debate on the so-called "abolition of the death penalty" on the island, which has lasted for decades. The results of the debate were finally combined with the professional opinions of 6 experts, 2 experts and 17 amicus curiae, and the 12 justices on the island voted on. The outcome will be decided within 3 months, which can be extended by 2 months if necessary, i.e. it may be possible to make a decision after up to 5 months.
In an interview, some members of the judicial circles on the island said that in principle, they hope that the result of the deliberation will be an "absolute majority", such as a unanimous approval, or an overwhelming ratio of 10 to 2, rather than a weak majority of 7 to 5, so that at least at the level of judicial expertise, there will be more unity of opinion. If the chief justice really passes the "abolition of death", it will inevitably collide with the public opinion on the island.
The issue of "abolition of the death penalty" is one of the DPP's main propositions, and because there are very complex controversies over social ethics, legal principles, and even religious thoughts, this judicial and social issue will inevitably become a political issue. According to past polls on the island, 88 percent of the people surveyed said they did not agree with the "abolition of the death penalty", and only 5 percent of the people surveyed agreed with the "abolition of the death penalty". And the reason why the court has attracted much attention this time is also because of its own procedural justice issues.
According to the analysis of the "TPOC Taiwan Issues Research Center", the negative voice of "abolition of death" is as high as 48,000, the positive voice is only more than 3,000, the negative voice is 12 times the positive voice, and its network favorability (P/N value) is only 0.08, showing that the negative voice completely crushes the positive voice, and the favorability is extremely low. According to the "TPOC Taiwan Issues Research Center", the trend of public opinion clearly points out the position against the "abolition of the death penalty", including the "abolition" coalition and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party government have become the targets of public criticism.
For example, Zhu Lilun, chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang, believes that the discussion process of the Basic Court is contrary to the Basic Law and aims to make the judiciary override the will of the people. Wang Hongwei, a representative of the Chinese Kuomintang, said that the abolition of the death penalty is contrary to the people's perception, and the DPP has been in power for 8 years, and under Tsai Ing-wen's wanton actions, all the justices have been appointed by Tsai Ing-wen in order to implement Tsai Ing-wen's will to implement the "abolition of the death penalty". Tsai Ing-wen is about to step down and hopes to achieve a "death penalty" policy that will become her "political legacy". But for his successor, Lai Qingde, it is a powerful "bomb" that is not in his hands.
Three Chinese Kuomintang nationals held a press conference
Even Wang Shijian, a representative of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), questioned in the island's radio program "Pop Crash News" that Taiwan's judiciary has always attached importance to the human rights of the perpetrators, but where are the victims? Can the victims' families not get a little justice because the case is torn apart? He even pointed out that advocating the "abolition of the death penalty" on the grounds of taking human rights into consideration is the collective hypocrisy of a very small number of people, and if the death penalty is abolished, it will completely undermine the rule of law in Taiwan, because the people are afraid that they will arm themselves and lead to social turmoil. Wang Shijian stressed that anyone who has the right to "manage the death penalty" related issues should stop "being generous to the victims" and should return justice to the victims, "I think this is the justice that society should give them, and this is also the voice of the vast majority of the people."
"Abolishing the death penalty" was one of the topics on the agenda in the election of the leader of the Taiwan region. Hou Youyi, a candidate of the Chinese Kuomintang and a former police officer, has made it clear that he opposes the "abolition of the death penalty" because he has seen a large number of victims. And his opponent Lai Qingde was forced by various things to vaguely say that "Taiwan has not 'abolished death.'" At the debate, he also said that the abolition of the death penalty requires a high degree of social consensus, regardless of the location. On April 16, on the eve of the opening of the Basic Law Court, the judiciary under the current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government also expressed its disagreement with the seven-point statement, clearly expressing its opposition to the abolition of the death penalty, saying that the system is determined by the consensus of the legislature and the executive, rather than by the judicial power of the justices.
Guo Zhengliang, a former representative of the People's Republic of China, believes that no matter what the outcome is, Lai Qingde, who has just come to power, will have to face a fierce "collision between the government and the opposition." Guo Zhengliang further pointed out that we will think that the criminal system, at most a few years, will actually be commuted, and who will be imprisoned for 25 years; therefore, we should increase the sentence of life imprisonment, if we don't talk about this, Tsai Ing-wen will dig another hole for Lai Qingde.
As early as when Chen Shui-bian was in power, there was a controversy over the so-called "abolition of the death penalty," because Chen Shui-bian once advocated the abolition of the death penalty, but soon after he came to power, he decided to shoot two death row inmates, which aroused questions about his inconsistent views. As a result, no decision was made to carry out the death penalty during his second term of office. During the Ma Ying-jeou period, Wang Qingfeng, the head of the judiciary he appointed, made it clear that he advocated the "abolition of the death penalty" and decided to resign because he insisted on his own ideas. The Ma Ying-jeou government then carried out a total of 33 executions, and Luo Yingxue, the last justice chief of the Ma government, executed 12 death row inmates as regime change approached. This was affirmed by public opinion at the time, because she showed a spirit of responsibility that was not afraid of pressure. Tsai Ing-wen has been in office for eight years and has carried out a death sentence in order to ease social pressures at the time and divert other points of contention.
At the same time, the condemned prisoners are also in an awkward position. There are currently 37 death row inmates on the island, the oldest of whom has been in prison for 35 years, and the youngest of them for nine years. There are even people who are willing to die because they can't bear this uncertainty.
At the same time, the victims' families are also resentful that "justice cannot be served". In particular, in recent years, there have been frequent incidents of vicious social incidents on the island, such as cutting the throats of young children on the street and the murder of two police officers in Tainan, which has aroused the anger of the whole society against the perpetrators. Advocates of the abolition of the death penalty have an argument that "man has no right to take the lives of others", but the fact is that the perpetrators kill innocents indiscriminately. Taiwanese artist Bai Bingbing was among those pushing for the death penalty, having her daughter kidnapped and brutally murdered in the 1990s. Bai Bingbing called on the Taiwan authorities to carry out the death penalty as soon as possible in line with fairness and justice: "If these death row prisoners do not die, the parents of those who have been dismembered will continue to earn money and pay taxes, and raise those invalid people until they die, which is not right...... If you support 'abolition', I think it is stepping on the blood and corpses of these people who have been dismembered and innocently killed. ”
In order to cater to Western society, some of the DPP's social policy propositions are often eager to confess, especially under the pressure of some so-called "Western human rights experts." But these ideas are often at odds with the social habits of the Chinese on the island, which belong to the East Asian tradition. For example, when Tsai Ing-wen was in her first term, she tried to use the "referendum" to promote the legalization of same-sex marriage, but she failed in all five "referendums" involving same-sex marriage issues at that time, and even the dark green religious groups on the island were clearly opposed, but Tsai Ing-wen finally used the legislature to vote forcibly, and the DPP also used the will of the party to force the vote, and those who did not agree were also punished by party discipline. On the one hand, the "abolition of the death penalty" lacks a popular basis more than "same-sex marriage," and on the other hand, the DPP is no longer the first party in the legislature, and the party will not be able to decide the outcome of the vote. In the end, even including Lai Qingde, may not be willing to accept this "bomb" to cooperate with the performance.
In addition, Ko Wenzhe of the People's Party has publicly said, "The compromise plan I have come up with so far is not to carry out the death penalty, but to jail for life." But according to opinion polls, six adults oppose the use of life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. In the live broadcast of the Basic Law debate court, some scholars claimed that "professional issues do not need to consider public opinion", and I am afraid that no politician will dare to endorse such an attitude. There are also people who believe that if the island really pushes for the "abolition of the death penalty", it will inevitably be forced to use "lynching" in the face of harm to the people.
Author: Xu Yi, special writer of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News