➤ 懲罰的重量英文版（The Unbearable Weight of a Sentence）
A Condensed Version of Interview Project: The Experience of Prisoners Serving Death and Life Sentences
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Publisher’s Foreword
Punishment bears weight.
On the eve of finalizing this preface, a series of indiscriminate attacks took place in the commercial areas around Taipei Main Station and MRT Zhongshan Station. The incidents resulted in three people dead and eleven others injured, with the suspect later falling to his death. Across Taiwan, people followed the media coverage and the videos and posts circulating on social media, sharing the same shock and anguish.
“If only we could live in a world without crime,” we might wish—but there is no “if only.” We may yearn for a zero-crime utopia, yet the Greek root of utopia literally means “no place,” a place that does not exist. And so we must face an imperfect society as it is, and face the fact that crime—and those who commit it—will exist.
Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) has never been naïve. Like everyone else, we long to live in a safe society. We hope no one will be harmed again, and we hope no one will be swallowed by despair. But we know that the death penalty is not the answer that leads us to that hope.
"The chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime."
W.E.B. Du Bois, American civil rights activist
From its founding in 2003, TAEDP has wanted to understand the people who have committed serious crimes. Yet it was not until 2020 that, following a resolution by the Executive Yuan Human Rights Protection Working Group , we finally had the opportunity to carry out a substantial research effort. In 2021, we began work that would culminate in our report entitled Interview Project: The Experience of Prisoners Serving Death and Life Sentences. Over the next two years, our team entered sixteen correctional institutions across Taiwan, completing interviews and questionnaire surveys with thirty-seven s and forty prisoners serving life sentences. The research team then analyzed the information collected and completed the 300-paged report, accompanied by policy recommendations in September 2025.
During the interviews, what struck us most was that many interviewees said, “This is the first time someone has been willing to listen to my entire story from beginning to end.” The public usually learned about these prisoners through news reports, focused only on their serious crimes. For many, that is the full story of those who have committed crimes. What environments and life experiences shaped who they were at the moment they committed the crime? What drove them to do it? What is it like to live behind bars for years? And have they changed since then? These are questions that few people truly care to ask.
Many of the people we interviewed told us, “If only I could go back to that day.” But again, there is no “if only.” No amount of regret can undo what has been done. Yet if we can understand who they were before they were swallowed by despair—and if we have the right institutions and resources in place—might it be possible to stop them from heading down the path to crime before “that day” arrives, and before anyone was made a victim of a crime?
In the face of serious crime, everyone feels anger—and the members of TAEDP are no exception. But beyond emotion, we hope to help this country confront violent crime through reason and evidence-based research. Preventing people from being led down the path to crime must be the first priority; only then should we ask what forms of punishment can lead to genuine remorse and give people a chance to return to society.
TAEDP also hopes to enter into dialogue with society, so that people can understand where we are coming from. This booklet The Unbearable Weight of a Sentence was born out of that hope. We have refined and distilled the contents of the larger research report, rewriting it on the same foundation and in language that is as plain and accessible as possible. The stories in Chapter 1, “Desolation,” and Chapter 4, “Bad Seeds,” are adapted from this study and from the life stories of death row prisoners published on TAEDP’s website. Chapter 2, “Preface,” explains the research project; Taiwan’s death-penalty policies and international trends are presented in Chapter 3, “The Death Penalty in Taiwan Today.” Chapter 5, “Back to Day Zero,” looks back at interviewees’ lives before their crimes. Chapter 6, “Days Behind Bars,” lays out problems within correctional institutions and the dilemmas of rehabilitation. Chapter 7, “The Living Dead,” discusses the torment of long-term incarceration and the death row phenomenon”. Then Chapter 8, “From Reflection to Remorse,” allows readers to see the interviewees’ remorse and their imagining of life—if they could start over again. Finally, Chapter 9 presents our “Policy Recommendations” based on the findings of the study.
Punishment bears weight. When applied wisely, that weight can have the power to change a person. On the other hand, we would like to call attention to another idea: when punishment is out of balance, its weight has the terrible power to violate human rights.
About the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty
Founded in 2003, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) is composed of NGOs and individuals who have long been concerned with human rights, judicial reform, and the death penalty. Through research, advocacy, public education, and policy dialogue, TAEDP focuses on individual death penalty cases and systemic risks, promotes criminal justice reform, and hopes that Taiwan will become a country that respects life and has no death penalty.
TAEDP’s Tasks
- Rescuing persons facing the death penalty
- Promoting fair trials
- Conducting research and discussions
- Promoting social dialogue
- Promoting life education
- Promoting social security
- Connecting with international movements against the death penalty
The death penalty is a cruel punishment that deprives people of life and hope. Only by exploring the causes of crime and eliminating social discrimination and injustice can we reduce crime and make society more inclusive and safer.
End Crime, Not Lives
Support TAEDP https://www.taedp.org.tw/donate
