A group opposing the death penalty yesterday sought to apply for an extraordinary appeal on behalf of a death-row prisoner who the Ministry of Justice has decided to execute.
While the ministry has not executed any prisoners so far this year, on Friday it approved the execution of Chung Te-shu (鍾德樹).
The Prosecutors' Office of the Taiwan High Court plans to execute Chung on Sunday evening.
On Saturday, after learning that Chung would be executed, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty hurriedly applied to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to review legal documents relating to Chung's case, hoping to put his execution on hold.
Members and lawyers of the alliance held a press conference in front of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office yesterday.
"The review of the case's legal documents may lead to an extraordinary application [to stop the execution] if the documents reveal anything suspicious," said Y.C. Kao (
Another group member, Kuo Jung-chi (
In 2001 April, Chung asked a woman surnamed Huang to repay a debt she owed him.
When Huang tried to avoid him, Chung went to Huang's private classroom in Taoyuan County, doused the room with gasoline and set it ablaze.
Huang and two children in the classroom died and 18 other children were injured.
Chung had been sentenced to death three times previously, but a series of appeals kept him alive while his case was heard in district court, the Taiwan High Court and the Supreme Court. The death sentence under which Chung is to be executed on Sunday was handed down by the Taiwan High Court in August 2003.
Prosecutors have noted several times that Huang has never showed remorse for his crime.
Kuo said that according to Chung's prison cellmate, Chung's family rarely visited after he received a death sentence.
Chung's mental health has deteriorated and he currently has no legal representation, conditions which Kuo called "inhuman."
With 20 prisoners now on death row in Taiwan, the alliance yesterday asked the ministry to keep its word to put an end to capital punishment.
The ministry's records show that the number of executions has been decreasing for years, with 32 put to death in 1998, 10 in 2001, three in 2004 and three last year.
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