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Human Rights Groups Slam Change to Death Penalty Appeal Rule
TaiwanPlus News
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4/18/2025
Human rights groups in Taiwan are slamming a recent rule change by the government that will make it easier to execute prisoners, allowing executions to take place while a prisoner's final appeal is pending.
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00:00
New regulations on how the death penalty is carried out in Taiwan come into force today.
00:05
And the rules are drawing fierce criticism from rights groups that say they remove some
00:09
legal protections.
00:11
Rick Glowatt has been following the issue of capital punishment in Taiwan and joins
00:16
us live from our newsroom in Taipei.
00:18
Rick, what do these changes mean?
00:22
So, it's a small but significant tweak from the Ministry of Justice that means that whilst
00:28
an extraordinary appeal, which is effectively a last resort legal challenge to an execution,
00:34
is ongoing, a prisoner can still be executed.
00:37
Previously, whilst an appeal like this was ongoing, an execution could not be carried
00:42
out.
00:43
Rights groups, as you said, speaking out against this change, including the Taiwan Association
00:47
of Human Rights, saying that it puts those prisoners on death row at risk and that executions
00:53
may now happen faster and that there is a greater chance of a miscarriage of justice.
00:58
The death penalty is a big issue here in Taiwan.
01:01
There's widespread support for it among the public.
01:04
But this change comes after the Constitutional Court was asked to weigh in on the issue last
01:09
year and actually limited the crimes that could be punished by death.
01:13
This is the first, there's only been one execution carried out since that ruling.
01:18
The one and only execution under the current president who has the final say on executions.
01:23
So to find out more about the issue of capital punishment in Taiwan, I spoke to Taipei-based
01:29
lawyer Casey Yang, and I began by asking him if this change would mean more executions
01:34
here in Taiwan.
01:35
It might be, but however, this new rule is not going to say the government should execute
01:43
more people.
01:44
This new rule is trying to loosen the rule for the government to execute.
01:53
For example, in the past, this rule put down some limitation for the government cannot execute.
02:02
However, in the new rule, it takes away a little limitation.
02:10
The original rule was that if there was some pending case, such as constitutional appeal or
02:17
such as another kind of remedy is taking place, the death penalty cannot be carried out.
02:25
However, this rule has been removed, so now that the government can carry out the execution, even if
02:34
those cases still have some pending in the court.
02:38
Given that this change has seen opposition from human rights groups, legal professionals,
02:44
why do you think the current Taiwan government would want to make this change to the death penalty?
02:50
In our opinion, the government, so for the government, they want to respond to the public opinion,
02:57
because many Taiwanese people in the past criticized the death penalty for being carried out too
03:03
slowly.
03:04
So, so I think this is the major, this is a major issue for the government to do this.
03:09
They want to take out, they want to take out some limitation, so they, so they can easily
03:14
to, so they can easily to carry out the execution.
03:17
The execution of the death penalty has always been highly political in Taiwan, because in
03:22
Taiwan, it is easily stirred public emotion.
03:26
So the politicians like to manipulate this issue in Taiwan.
03:29
And sometimes the government may also choose to carry out execution when their approval rating
03:35
are low to please the public.
03:38
So this issue is always public.
03:40
It's not, it's not merely a legal issue.
03:42
It's always a political issue in Taiwan.
03:44
And why is there so much support for the death penalty in Taiwan?
03:49
In our opinion, I think that because Taiwanese people believe that, believe the, because
03:55
Taiwanese people believe the concept of karma and the idea that those who kill others should
04:00
themselves be killed.
04:01
I think another reason might be that sensational media coverage of serious crime, that media
04:08
always highlight the cruelty of the crimes and the suffering of the victims.
04:13
So it's very easy to stir public emotion and feel strong anger and a desire for revenge against the
04:21
against the offender in the general public.
04:24
There's currently 36 people on death row in Taiwan, people that of course now are facing
04:28
an even more uncertain future.
04:30
Rights groups here calling for these new rules to be suspended so they can be investigated
04:35
and there can be greater transparency.
04:38
Thanks Rick.
04:39
And that was lawyer Casey Yang speaking there too.
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