No end in sight

Faced with public intransigence and what they say is a flawed system, activists support an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment

By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Jan 04, 2009, Page 13 Taipei Times

On Jan. 17 of last year, Wang Kuo-hua (王國華) lost his third and final trial, sending him to death row on a charge of premeditated murder with rape.

The verdict, however, states that the survivor among Wang's two victims told the court Wang had not raped her or her friend, and her testimony did not indicate that he had planned the murder.

The case illustrates systemic problems with the nation's death penalty system that the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (廢除死刑推動聯盟) has long campaigned to change.

It is not clear why Wang received the severest sentence, Taiwan Alliance director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) said in a recent interview.

Furthermore, the judge said in the ruling that Wang was apparently mentally ill.

Yet none of these points was taken into account for the sentencing, Lin said.

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2008-12-23 中央社

達卡23日法新電

孟加拉法院今天判處三名回教好戰份子絞刑，他們於四年前共謀以手榴彈殺害英國大使遭定罪。

英國駐達卡高級專員公署（大使館）立即對本案宣判表示歡迎，但譴責死刑判決。

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2008-12-21 中國時報

台北牯嶺街小劇場，廿一日下午將上演一場死刑犯的故事，在《我的那一聲再見》劇中，二十五歲的劇場新秀林胤瑋將飾演這位死刑犯。林胤瑋是排灣族與魯凱族的混血兒，三年前創立「絕非戲弄」劇團，結果負債一百廿萬，在沉寂兩年後，他雖然債未還清但夢想不滅，決定復出舞台。

林胤瑋能編能演也能導，《我的那一聲再見》，從死刑犯的故事談生命的不可被剝奪性。為了這部戲，林胤瑋透過廢除死刑推動聯盟了解許多相關資訊，還看了死刑犯寫下的書信，「很讓我意外的，他們的文字，不是想活、想脫罪，是想死、想知道死期，甚至要廢死聯盟別再管他們。」

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2008-12-09

「死刑零執行第三年」入選台權會年度十大人權新聞

【入選新聞】台灣死刑零執行第三年

【入選原因】至目前為止，全世界有137個國家廢除或實際上廢除死刑，只剩下60個國家還維持死刑制度，但其中也僅有約20個左右的國家有真正執行死刑。（今年的統計尚未出來，但2007年有24個國家執行死刑，2006年則有25個。）台灣雖然沒有正式的宣示「停止死刑執行（moratorium）」，政府也尚未明確的提出廢除死刑政策，但是終究我們已經停止死刑三年了，不再是那世界上少數執行死刑的20幾個國家之一。小小成果該為台灣喝采，但此同時更要呼籲政府，請提出時間表以及合適、完整的替代死刑措施。

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 Published on Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/11/30/2003429896

FEATURE: Alliance against death penalty fetes successes

By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Nov 30, 2008, Page 3

Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty director Lin Hsin-yi, right, and fellow activists march in Paris after the third World Congress against the Death Penalty in February last year. PHOTO COURTESY OF TAEDP

When local nongovernmental organizations teamed up to create an alliance against capital punishment five years ago, the implementation of the death penalty in Taiwan was still very secretive. "At the beginning, it was very difficult for us even to find out how many people were on death row," Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) said in an interview with the Taipei Times.

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【TAEDP】

世界反死刑聯盟發表新聞稿表示，歡迎第63屆聯合國大會第三委員會投票通過【停止死刑執行（moratorium on executions）】的決議（紐約時間，2008年11月20日中午12:00）。總共有105個國家票贊成、48個國家反對以及31個國家棄權。第三委員會的投票結果，將會送到全會(plenary meeting）確認後正式通過。（但依照過往經驗，全會很少會否決各委員會的決議）

在去年（2008）年的聯合國大會也通過62/149號決議，同樣是【停止死刑執行（moratorium on executions）】，今年投票贊成的國家比去年多了兩個。停止死刑執行及廢除死刑已經成為全世界不可逆轉的趨勢了！

[WORLD COALITION AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY] 20081120 Press Release

ADOPTION OF A NEW RESOLUTION ON MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS BY THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY THIRD COMMITTEE:
ONE MORE STEP TOWARDS UNIVERSAL ABOLITION

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty welcomes the adoption by the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly of a second resolution calling for a universal moratorium on the use of the capital punishment.

Supported by an increasing number of co-sponsors countries (2 more countries), it reaffirms the resolution 62/149 of 18 December 2007 “Moratorium on the use of the death penalty” and recognizes “the global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty”.

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Whither the death penalty?

5 November 2008 (Taipei Times)

Yesterday, as Indonesia increased security ahead of the execution of the three Islamic militants convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings, a seminar in Taipei brought French and Taiwanese legal specialists together to discuss how Taiwan can continue its path toward abolishing capital punishment.

The carnage wrought by the terrorists behind the bombings, in which 202 people were killed, was an unspeakable crime.

It may seem difficult in this context to argue for the abolition of the death penalty, but the message at yesterday’s forum was clear: The death penalty is a violation of human rights, illegal in all cases under international law.

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