The Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that corroborated statements given to prosecutors or judicial police by absent witnesses are admissible as evidence.
The court issued the ruling in response to a request for an interpretation filed by death row inmates Wang Hsin-fu (王信福) and Shen Hung-lin (沈鴻霖), along with three other people in April last year.
That filing said that Article 159-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) contradicted Article 8 of the Constitution, which deals with basic rules for arrests, detention and trials, and also contradicts Article 16 of the Constitution, which protects people’s litigation rights, on the grounds that the article deprives defendants of their right of confrontation, and that it allows “uncorroborated” police statements to serve as evidence.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
The petitioners questioned the constitutionality of clauses allowing prosecutors or judicial police officers to use corroborated statements already given by the litigants as evidence, if such statements are necessary for proving guilt or innocence when witnesses cannot attend a trial.
While acknowledging that Article 159-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure would curtail defendants’ right to cross-examine witnesses, the Constitutional Court in its ruling pointed to the provision that requires a court to scrutinize statements given by absent witnesses in addition to ensuring that the defendant’s right of confrontation is duly compensated for and thus adequately protected.
Additionally, statements provided to prosecutors or judicial police officers by absent witnesses prior to a trial may not serve as the sole piece of evidence based on which a court passes down a guilty verdict, the ruling said.
As such, Article 159-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure does not contradict articles 8 and 16 of the Constitution, the ruling said.
The Supreme Court in 2011 sentenced Wang to death for ordering Chen Jung-chieh (陳榮傑) to fatally shoot two police officers in 1990. Chen was sentenced to death in 1992 and executed that same year. Wang fled and was not apprehended until 2006.
Shen is on death row for raping and killing two female workers in their dormitory with two other perpetrators, Huang Hsi-jen (黃錫任) and Huang Chi-hsiung (黃啟雄), who were arrested and executed in 1990 and 1991 respectively.
Shen was not captured until 2003. The Supreme Court in 2009 sentenced him to death.
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