Su Chien-ho, Chuang Lin-hsun, and Liu Ping-lang were first sentenced to death in 1992. Since then, their young lives have been wasting away as they go through endless cycles of sentencing, appeals, and rejections. In 2003, they finally saw light after 11 dark years. They were declared not guilty and released immediately.

However, after appeals by members of the victims' families and prosecutors, the three were brought back to court in late June of this year. This time, their not-guilty verdict was overturned and the death sentence was reinstated. The legal tragicomedy that has dragged on for 16 years is a reflection of the culture of "repeat litigation" in Taiwan that places a huge burden on the legal community, litigants, and the whole of society.

Youth interrupted

When the verdict was read in the media glare, it seemed that the three had no willpower left after spending more than a decade between life and death. Their voices became hoarse and their bodies weak, showing their feeling of powerlessness. But after a short break, the three accused and their supporters regained their strength. Their pro bono legal defense team, led by human-rights lawyer Lin Feng-cheng, has already filed an appeal on their behalf with Taiwan's Supreme Court.

"This time, it is not only three individuals that are awaiting judgment," Lin said, "Also on the scales of justice is Taiwan's legal system, which has violated the principles of the presumption of innocence and strict reliance on evidence!"

According to the charges, in March, 1991, a soldier on leave named Wang Wen-hsiao brought his friends Chuang Lin-hsun, Liu Ping-lang, and Su Chien-ho as well as his brother Wang Wen-chung into the home of his neighbors Wu Ming-han and his wife Yeh Ying-lan to burglarize it. Wu was awoken by them and confronted them. Angered, they tied the couple up, ransacked the home for valuables, and raped the woman. The four (Wang Wen-chung kept lookout outside, according to the charges) then brutally stabbed the couple 79 times. The number of wounds inflicted made police and prosecutors suspect more than one person was involved.

Five months after the crime occurred, a fingerprint at the scene was traced to Wang Wen-hsiao, who was then serving in the Marines. Facing hard evidence, Wang confessed and provided a detailed explanation of what happened that day. The next day, however, Wang recanted and named his brother as an accomplice. Later still he named Chuang, Liu, and Su, and a burglary gone wrong became an endless legal nightmare.

Wang Wen-hsiao was executed early in 1992 after a speedy military trial. The next day, Chuang, Liu, and Su were brought into court and by February the Taipei District Court had sentenced them to death. Successive appeals and retrials did not change the original judgment, and after the case reached the Supreme Court, that court affirmed their death sentences in 1995.

That did not close the book on the case, however. As there was no direct evidence, human-rights groups suspected that the conviction was based solely on Wang's confession--a confession that was very likely extracted through torture. As people took up the trio's cause, the attorney general at the time, Chen Han-tseng, filed two extraordinary appeals. Additionally, several ministers of justice, including Ma Ying-jeou during his term in the position, refused to sign execution orders for them and the case has lingered to this day.

Waiting in limbo

The problems with the case--the weighing of the confessions against the evidence, the use of torture, the process of gathering and authenticating evidence, the detention of the suspects--have made it a lightning rod for those calling for legal reform and a ban on capital punishment in Taiwan. And on the other side, the victims' families feel that the social organizations aiding the trio are only concerned with the rights of the defendants and ignore those of the victims. They too feel that justice is being denied.

In the 16 years since the Hsichih Trio case began, Taiwan's legal system has made enormous advances. Cases involving the alleged improprieties of authorities ranging from the mayors of Taipei and Kaohsiung all the way to the president, once inconceivable, are now common occurrences. However, even as those advances are being made, cases like the one against the Hsichih Trio still exist. Taiwan's legal community and citizens alike need to stay aware of those caught in legal limbo due to ineffective courts.