Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday criticized a Chiayi District Court ruling on Thursday absolving a man of murdering a police officer last year.
The man, surnamed Cheng (鄭), was on July 3 last year caught riding on a train without a ticket and had an argument with the train conductor. When the train arrived at Chiayi Railway Station, police officer Lee Cheng-han (李承翰) boarded the car to try to remove him.
In the struggle, Cheng stabbed the officer with a knife. Although Lee was rushed to a nearby hospital and received a blood transfusion, he died the next morning due to excessive internal hemorrhage.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Citing Article 19 of the Criminal Code, the court acquitted Cheng on the grounds that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2010.
He had not been on medication for two years and likely had a relapse, which affected his judgement, it said.
The ruling has disheartened many police officers, KMT Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said in a speech before a legislative meeting.
From the perspective of retributive justice, Cheng should be given the death penalty, whereas from the perspective of crime prevention, he should receive any punishments necessary, she said.
Cheng’s crime is so great that “there is no place for him between the heavens and earth,” yet the judge decided to pardon him, she said.
“The article does not take into account past medical records. It is only interested in whether [Cheng] is in a state of mental disorder in the heat of the moment,” KMT Legislator Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) later told a news conference in Taipei.
“Even a doctor could not prove that Cheng did not know that he was killing someone,” she said. “The judiciary should exercise due diligence instead of imposing the heavy burden of determining a defendant’s mental health on psychiatrists.”
Instead of ordering Cheng to undergo compulsory treatment for five years, he should be placed in a special prison for people with mental illnesses, where they should be isolated for life unless proven that they have been cured, KMT Legislator Yeh Yu-lan (葉毓蘭) said.
While the court had enlisted Taichung Veterans General Hospital’s Chiayi branch to verify whether Cheng has schizophrenia, one hospital’s diagnosis is not enough proof that Cheng was “schizophrenic when he committed the crime,” KMT Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) said.
The court should have solicited the help of at least two other medical institutions before handing out its verdict to avoid culprits from exploiting the immunity from liability granted to people with psychosis, he said.
KMT caucus secretary-general Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the ruling represented a “second injury” for members of Lee’s family.
The Judicial Yuan must step up its efforts to promote reform to prevent the judiciary from becoming out of touch with public opinion, he said.
Police and health authorities should reflect and think about why a monitoring system has not been established to check on people with mental disorders, he said.
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