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Time to abolish capital punishment
By Roger Hood

TAIPEI TIMES, Monday, Nov 16, 2009, Page 8

Twenty years ago, at the end of 1988, 52 countries had abolished the death penalty — 35 of them for all crimes in all circumstances, and the rest of them for murder and other “ordinary” crimes, but not for treason or crimes in time of war. Today, 103 countries have abolished the death penalty, 95 of which have abolished it in all circumstances. Very few countries carry out executions: Only 48 have done so in the last 10 years, and the number has decreased during that time.

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21 October 2009
 

 

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The U.S. state with the busiest death chamber and one of the largest prison populations is Texas, where public opinion polls show the death penalty is supported by more than 70 percent of the population. A new book by students at a Texas university compiles writings and art work done by condemned prisoners. The book, Upon This Chessboard of Nights and Days, Voices from Texas Death Row, was published by Texas Review Press, on the campus of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville - a city that is the location of one of the state's largest prisons and where executions are carried out. The book provides a rare look into the minds of men who await their moment in the death chamber.

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韓國  十萬天主教徒簽名要求廢除死刑

Please scroll down to see English verion

2009-10-23 天主教亞洲通訊社

【天亞社.首爾訊】韓國天主教會籲請國會廢除死刑,並遞交一份收集了逾十萬個天主教徒簽名的請願書。

KO08047_1.jpg韓國主教團「廢除死刑小組」十月八日在國會大樓召開記者會,促請國會議員立法終止死刑。

會後,主教們遞交一份他們及逾十萬教友簽名的請願書。這次行動緊隨在同一天韓國五十三位議員提交一份廢除死刑草案之後。

主教團副秘書長卞勝湜神父〔圖左四〕說,教會的呼籲是建立於尊重生命和人權的基礎上。

他承認,當暴力罪行不斷增加時,許多人都支持恢復死刑。但他堅持,國際社會趨向廢除死刑,他希望該國的第十八屆國會也將如此做。

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Death penalty costs US millions

AFP , WASHINGTON
TAIPEI Times, Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009, Page 7

Even when executions are not carried out, the death penalty costs US states hundreds of millions of dollars a year, depleting budgets in the midst of economic crisis, a study released yesterday found.

“It is doubtful in today’s economic climate that any legislature would introduce the death penalty if faced with the reality that each execution would cost taxpayers 25 million dollars, or that the state might spend more than 100 million dollars over several years and produce few or no executions,” argued Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) and the report’s author.

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Death penalty, education reform activists team up

By Loa Iok-sin STAFF REPORTER
Taipei Times Sunday, Oct 11, 2009, Page 3

On World Day Against the Death Penalty yesterday, anti-capital punishment and education reform activists urged the government to introduce the debate on death penalty in schools so that students could start thinking about controversial issues early.

“When we try to promote abolition of the death penalty, we often run into supporters of capital punishment who refuse to talk to us at all,” Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty executive director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

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WORLD DAY 2009
10th October, 7th World Day Against the Death Penalty

Press Release

See the Color of Life
Understanding the Death Penalty


Today is the World Day Against the Death Penalty. Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP台灣廢除死刑推動聯盟), European Economic and Trade Office (歐洲經貿辦事處), Human Rights Education Curriculum and Instruction Team (教育部人權教育議題輔導群), Humanistic Education Foundation (人本教育文教基金會), Taiwan Association for Human Rights (台灣人權促進會) and Chang Fo-Chuan Human Rights Study Center of Soochow University (東吳大學張佛泉人權研究中心) jointly host the press conference. In the conference, representatives of above groups inaugurate the seed-teacher empowerment workshop: “See the Color of Life: Understanding the Death Penalty ” and sign the global petition “Appeal for the End of Execution of Children in the World ”. (Chinese Version is here )

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Nicolas Baudouin / Policy Officer of European Economic and Trade Office
Statement for Death penalty 2009 (中文版 )

Let me first welcome you and thank you for your participation in today's workshop. I'd also like to congratulate Taiwan coalition to end the death penalty for designing and organizing this event. I will just say a few words to outline the issue of the abolition of the death penalty before the discussions start.

As you know, in the world today there are many NGOs holding seminars in the framework of the World Day against the death penalty. Taiwan alliance to end the death penalty is a well known and recognized organization on this matter. The European Economic and Trade Office is one of the sponsors of this workshop.

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JUSTICE SERVED?: The case, which has bounced between courts for two decades, has been panned for flaws including the submission of coerced confessions as evidence
By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009, Page 4

“Every time, I hope that this time the retrial will be different. All the lawyers involved in the case believe these people are innocent, otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten involved.”
— Stephen Lee, lawyer

 

The defendant sentenced to death 11 times in Taiwan’s longest ongoing criminal case has no hope that his newest retrial will be any different, his lawyer said yesterday on the opening day of the trial at the Taiwan High Court. “Chiou Ho-shun [邱和順] lost hope long ago,” lawyer Stephen Lee (李勝雄), who has represented Chiou at all 11 retrials, said in an interview.

This is the 12th time the Taipei branch of the Taiwan High Court hears the case, which has been roundly condemned by the Judicial Reform Foundation and strongly criticized by Amnesty International for a series of flaws — most notably the submission of coerced confessions as evidence and the lack of forensic evidence linking the defendants to the crimes.

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Public satisfaction with social order drops: poll
By 中央社
編譯:廖文韻

2009-09-01 00:00:00    

Although the number of crime victims in Taiwan appears to be dropping, an increasing number of people are not satisfied with the government's performance in maintaining social order, according to the results of a survey released last Saturday.

The survey, conducted by the Crime Research Center of National Chung Cheng University in Chaiyi, found that 76 percent of the Taiwan public was dissatisfied with the government's efforts in the first half of the year to improve social order.

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佛教反對死刑:歷史與教理的初步探索
溫金柯(財團法人淨土宗文教基金會教理哲學研究部主任)


摘要
聯合國近半個世紀正在推動的國際廢除死刑運動,可說是以基督教文明為基礎發展起來的。在人類歷史上,過去也曾經有過一波伴隨著佛教信仰的傳播,而產生的國際廢除死刑運動。日本、中國、西藏及印度,都曾受佛教影響而廢止死刑。本文擬以歷史回溯的方式,陳述這一運動的發生過程,並根據佛教的傳記及戒律、教義發展史,重現在佛教信仰中廢除死刑的實踐及理論的發展。佛教雖然發生於一個有死刑的社會,但佛教從一開始就否定死刑,並且救贖死刑犯、拒絕執行死刑,並從戒律學上以死刑為非法,貶低法官及行刑者。大乘佛教興起以後,要求菩薩必須救贖死刑犯,若菩薩擔任國王則須廢止死刑,觀世音菩薩成為佛教信仰傳統中,救贖死刑犯的典型人物。佛教廢除死刑的思想雖以源自印度傳統婆羅門教的輪迴、業報及追求解脫的觀念為基礎,但是佛陀的人格及其教團堅拒死刑的實踐,應是推動這一波國際廢止死刑運動的最終根源。

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