Su Chien-ho, Liu Bin-lang and Chuang Lin-hsun (蘇建和、 劉秉郎、 莊林勳) ‘THE HSICHIH TRIO’

Last updated: November 2012

Su Chien-ho, Liu Bin-lang and Chuang Lin-hsun
(蘇建和、 劉秉郎、 莊林勳)
 ‘THE HSICHIH TRIO’

The facts of a crime shall be established with evidence. The facts of a crime shall not be established without evidence.

Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 156

Based on … the fact that only one person’s bloody fingerprint and one type of shoeprint were found at the scene, there is a high likelihood that Wang Wen-hsiao acted alone in committing this crime.

Forensic report, Hsichih Trio case

Status: The defendants were acquitted on August 31, 2012 after the 21 years old case and 11 years in detention. The verdict was final and no appeals would be allowed in accordance with the Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act＊. 

Summary: The defendants were arrested and convicted of double murder in 1991, at the age of 19. They spent five years at imminent risk of execution until their case was reopened in 2000. In 2003 they were acquitted by the High Court, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial. They were subsequently found guilty in 2007. The Supreme Court ordered another retrial, and they were acquitted again in 2010. In April 2011 the Supreme Court ordered another retrial. The defendants were acquitted on August 31, 2012 and the case finally closed.

Details: In March 1991, a married couple was stabbed to death in their bedroom in Hsichih, Taipei County, in an apparent burglary.

In August, Wang Wen-hsiao was arrested based on a fingerprint found at the scene of the crime. Wang and his brother were interrogated and named Su, Liu and Chuang as accomplices.

Wang was tried and convicted in a military court and swiftly executed.

His brother Wang Wen-jung, along with Su, Liu and Chuang, all confessed to the crime but later retracted their statements and said they had been tortured. They were tried in civilian criminal courts. Wang Wen-jung received a lighter sentence, as prosecutors said he had only served as a lookout. Su, Liu and Chuang were said to have participated in raping the female victim and killing the pair. They were sentenced to death.

The three spent five years at imminent risk of execution, but a string of justice ministers declined to sign the execution order. In 2000, the High Court granted Su, Liu and Chuang a retrial.

In the latest retrial, the court commissioned an independent crime reconstruction based on photographic evidence and autopsy reports. (Forensic work is normally carried out by the Ministry of Justice and police departments.)

The report, by forensic scientist Henry Lee, concluded that the crime was in all likelihood carried out by a lone murderer: “Based on the distribution and conditions of the bloodstain patterns, the reconstruction of the crime scene, and the fact that only one person’s bloody fingerprint and one type of shoeprint were found at the scene, there is a high likelihood that Wang Wen-hsiao acted alone in committing this crime.”

The forensic report is explained in detail in the Taipei Times feature “Guilty by association?”

＊The Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act

Article 5  Where the accused is in detention, the court shall give priority to the trial of the case and conduct continuous trials at the shortest time limit. Where the accused has committed an offense punishable with the death penalty, life imprisonment or a minimum punishment of imprisonment for no less than ten years, the extension of detention may be allowed 6 times during the first instance and the second instance respectively, and one time only during the third instance.  The accumulated period of detention during the trial shall not exceed eight years. Where no final judgment is made at the expiration of the detention period prescribed in the preceding paragraph, the detention shall be deemed cancelled and the court shall release the accused. Where the accused is kept in detention, the court shall give priority to the trial of the case and conduct continuous trials at the shortest time limit.

Article 8   A case shall not be appealed to the Supreme Court if it is more than six years from the date the case is pending in the first instance and after being remanded by the Supreme Court for the third time, the court of second instance upholds the not guilty judgment rendered by the first instance or its not guilty judgment has been upheld by courts of the same instance for more than twice before remanding.

(Edited by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, WU Jiazhen)