Apr 13, 2011
TAIPEI - IN A small, sparsely-furnished apartment in the suburbs of Taipei, Mrs Chou Chang Chan's hands shake as she holds a picture of a sharply-dressed young man - her son, who was brutally murdered at age 32.
Two men were sentenced to death last year for stabbing him in an attempted burglary. If there is one thing his mother and her ailing husband hope to live to see, it is the sentences being carried out.
'We're in our eighties now. We don't know when we'll die but we're only willing to go once we've seen the execution. The government should return justice to the family,' she said.
In 2010, the government reinstated the death penalty after a four-year unofficial moratorium and nine prisoners have since been executed, including five men last month.
But in a case that has reinvigorated debate, the government in January apologised for the execution of an innocent man, Chiang Kuo-Ching, who was put to death for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl 15 years ago. In letters to his father, Chiang always maintained that he confessed only after being tortured.
The island's Control Yuan, a watchdog that supervises other branches of government, last year ruled that evidence against Chiang was insufficient and another man with a history of abusing young girls has been arrested. However, polls show that more than two-thirds of Taiwanese support capital punishment, believing it is a strong deterrent to violent crime. -- AFP
TAIPEI - IN A small, sparsely-furnished apartment in the suburbs of Taipei, Mrs Chou Chang Chan's hands shake as she holds a picture of a sharply-dressed young man - her son, who was brutally murdered at age 32.
Two men were sentenced to death last year for stabbing him in an attempted burglary. If there is one thing his mother and her ailing husband hope to live to see, it is the sentences being carried out.
'We're in our eighties now. We don't know when we'll die but we're only willing to go once we've seen the execution. The government should return justice to the family,' she said.
In 2010, the government reinstated the death penalty after a four-year unofficial moratorium and nine prisoners have since been executed, including five men last month.
But in a case that has reinvigorated debate, the government in January apologised for the execution of an innocent man, Chiang Kuo-Ching, who was put to death for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl 15 years ago. In letters to his father, Chiang always maintained that he confessed only after being tortured.
The island's Control Yuan, a watchdog that supervises other branches of government, last year ruled that evidence against Chiang was insufficient and another man with a history of abusing young girls has been arrested. However, polls show that more than two-thirds of Taiwanese support capital punishment, believing it is a strong deterrent to violent crime. -- AFP
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