Q: Recently the death penalty was carried out on several convicted felons, drawing criticism from the European Union. This in turn sparked a counter-reaction among some people in Taiwan. What are your thoughts about these developments?

A: First, I’d like to say a few things about the two international human rights experts who called for a moratorium on capital punishment back in December.

Taiwan passed the two major international human rights covenants into domestic law in 2009 (see box, p. 39). These require governments to produce a preliminary report, which has to be submitted to the United Nations for review and comment. But Taiwan is not a member of the UN, and cannot submit its report for review, so the government invited 10 international human rights experts, including the two I just mentioned, to make a special trip to Taiwan to help us out.

The review process is very arduous, and the only reason the experts agreed to come was that they are genuinely concerned about human rights here and also because they had already received a “shadow report” from non-governmental organizations. It was only because they had already been invited to comment on Taiwan’s human rights reports that they made their well-intentioned recommendation for a moratorium.

In any case, the whole incident—from the initial call for a moratorium through the EU criticism through the local counter-reaction—makes an excellent entrée for thinking about the death penalty in Taiwan. Given that the major political parties have a high degree of consensus about implementing the two covenants in Taiwan, shouldn’t we take the provisions regarding the death penalty seriously? For example, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states [in Article 6]: “Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted in all cases.” Although Taiwan has a “law on pardons,” it is very old and the provisions are not very clear. Until we can amend that law to ensure we are in line with the ­ICCPR, to suddenly execute people amounts to depriving them of their right to appeal for a pardon or commutation.

The biggest obstacle to bringing Taiwan into line with the international community on capital punishment in Taiwan is not opposition from public opinion, but the lack of determination on the part of the government to change the laws that need to be changed.

Q: The most persuasive argument made by those in favor of the death penalty is that people sentenced to life imprisonment may be paroled after a number of years, which terrifies the families of the victims. What is your view of this argument?

A: In the past the bar for parole for persons sentenced to life imprisonment was definitely on the low side, and some people were released after serving only a decade or so. But Taiwan’s Penal Code has already been amended to read that anyone sentenced to life must be behind bars for 25 years before they can be paroled. Moreover, in order for there to even be a chance of parole there has to be a review process to confirm that the criminal regrets his or her crime and that any psychological deviancy has been corrected.

The public is concerned that paroled criminals will go on to commit further crimes. But this is not a problem with the law per se, but is because the standards for parole are too lax. We can’t blame the law for negligence in its administration. If the parole system is not functioning properly, many criminals imprisoned for lesser sentences than the death penalty will also be released imprudently. This is the real root problem behind people’s fears.

In fact, the public does not universally support the death penalty, and there is widespread compassion for people who have been framed by the police or forced to confess to crimes they did not commit. Just recall the case of Jiang Guo­qing. [Tr. note: Jiang, a soldier, was tortured into confessing to the rape and murder of a little girl and was quickly executed. The real murderer confessed to the crime 15 years later.] If someone is wrongly executed, that harm can never be undone.

Secondly, everyone sees only the fear of the victim’s family, but in fact the criminal’s family also suffers greatly, and worries that the other side will seek revenge. The death penalty has been used so many times over all these years, but it has not led to a reduction in the incidence of capital crimes. We should really be focusing on improving police work, not executing people.

Q: Is abolition of the death penalty really an international trend? Even if it is, does Taiwan have to go along?

A: There is no question that this is an international trend. People who doubt this often point to the US and Japan, which still have capital punishment, to support their views. But 17 of the 50 states in the US have eliminated the death penalty, and its abolition is being actively discussed in Japan.

People in Taiwan may feel that we are not ready yet, but in many countries where capital punishment has been abolished it was not done in a planned or scheduled way. They abolished it just by passing the necessary legislation.

Q: What do you think has been the biggest achievement of the ­TAEDP recently?

A: One thing we promoted was for Taiwan to eliminate mandatory death sentences, and to allow alternatives in all cases, and this has been achieved. Also, in December of 2012 the Supreme Court began their first ever discussion of the standards for sentencing someone to death as opposed to a lesser sentence, in dealing with the Wu Min­cheng case. [Wu had committed a murder but was not sentenced to death; after being paroled he committed another murder.]

In addition, we have also sparked a public dialogue through lectures, TV debates, and so on, and we have been conducting our own domestic research. We want to be on the same level of sophistication on this issue as the international community.

The photos above show advertisements and direct-mail literature from the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty.

The photos above show advertisements and direct-mail literature from the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty.