Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) yesterday authorized the execution of convicted murderer Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), the first death row prisoner to be put to death since President William Lai (賴清德) took office.
Huang was to be executed via a firing squad yesterday evening, which would leave Taiwan with 36 convicts on death row.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
Huang on Oct. 1, 2013, broke into his ex-girlfriend Wang Ping-chih’s (王品智) residence in New Taipei City, where he raped and murdered Wang. He also killed Wang’s mother.
Huang was bitter over the breakup and her accusation that he had stolen NT$200,000 (US$6,074) from her bank account, prosecutors said in the indictment.
Huang entered Wang’s home and strangled her mother to death at 4pm, and waited for more than an hour for Wang to come home. He then bound, raped and strangled her, prosecutors said.
Huang left the scene after stealing NT$10,000 of cash.
Wang’s father found the bodies when he got home after 7pm.
The New Taipei District Court convicted Huang, and cited the particularly heinous nature of the crime and the high likelihood of reoffense as reasons for sentencing him to death.
That verdict was upheld in his mandatory second trial, a retrial and a final trial at the Supreme Court in 2017.
The top court in its ruling said that Huang’s actions were premeditated, as evidenced by the rope and mask he brought with him.
Cheng previously told lawmakers prisoners on the death row would not be executed, following the Constitutional Court’s ruling in September last year that only the most serious of premeditated crimes deserved capital punishment.
The ministry did not comment on Huang’s execution as of press time last night.
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