The Ministry of Justice on Friday denied accusations that it was unwilling to carry out death sentences, saying that all 37 inmates on death row in Taiwan are in the process of applying for legal remedies.
The prisoners have brought their cases to the Constitutional Court and have therefore received a legally guaranteed stay of execution, the ministry said in a statement.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) criticized the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) earlier this week, saying it was neither trying to abolish capital punishment nor daring to carry out executions.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Two people have been put to death under capital punishment laws since the DPP was elected into office in May 2016.
In response, the ministry said the implementation of the death penalty could only be immediate if the remedy process were eliminated, but doing so might contravene Taiwan’s legal system.
Taiwan has written two UN human rights-related covenants into domestic law — namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Taiwan’s presidential candidates discussed the death penalty in a televised debate last week, with only the KMT’s presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), clearly stating his opposition to abolishing capital punishment.
DPP presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) said it was a sensitive issue in any country and that abolishing it requires a high degree of public support.
While neither the ICCPR nor the ICESCR requires abolishing the death penalty, they do call for extra discretion in deciding whether to carry out executions, Lai said.
The ICESCR does not mention the death penalty.
The ICCPR says it “may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law” and can only be carried out “pursuant to a final judgment rendered by a competent court.”
Meanwhile, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that given the global trend away from capital punishment, the only compromise he could think of was to not allow parole for people who have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
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