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Taiwan: High Court overturns Hsieh Yi-han's death sentence, upholds Huang Lin-kai's death verdict

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH2qundRT0gcATU6M9ftVfSx4Opp2b0jPWc7gUddORnNBR1sWt0QlbCW7FT5U66ro66sKKKoT-ROHYVUGAg-8fDHmlGZ_6AV6AKmMIe9nqObMOHE_MbNB3_Td3SSMaMq6MeP6CaLePw6k/s1600/Taipei.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Taipei" border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH2qundRT0gcATU6M9ftVfSx4Opp2b0jPWc7gUddORnNBR1sWt0QlbCW7FT5U66ro66sKKKoT-ROHYVUGAg-8fDHmlGZ_6AV6AKmMIe9nqObMOHE_MbNB3_Td3SSMaMq6MeP6CaLePw6k/s400/Taipei.jpg" title="Taipei" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>A new Leaf ? 2 witnesses called by Hsieh Yi-han's defense team said that her chances of rehabilitation were high, and the court paid heed to their testimony</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The High Court yesterday overturned Hsieh Yi-han's death sentence, sentencing her to life imprisonment after she was convicted of committing a double murder at Mama Mouth Cafe in 2013.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hsieh was sentenced to death by 3 lower courts, with the Supreme Court returning the case to the High Court twice for retrial over the murder of businessman Chen Chin-fu and his wife Chang Tsui-ping in February 2013.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At that time, Hsieh was a manager of the Mama Mouth Cafe in New Taipei City's Bali District. She was accused of killing the couple for money and dumping their bodies into Tamsui River, where their bodies were found washed up on shore a few days after they were killed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hsieh's defense lawyer called on 2 expert witnesses in the 2nd retrial, a psychiatrist and a Christian pastor, who had provided counseling to Hsieh during her incarceration, the court said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The expert witnesses testified that the chances of Hsieh's rehabilitation were high. The court overturned her death sentence based on this testimony, it said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ruling can be appealed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Several family members of the victims attended the ruling and afterward said that they felt distraught and could not accept the decision, vowing to appeal to the Supreme Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a separate civil case in 2014, the High Court ruled that Hsieh must pay NT$9.99 million (US$312,823 at current exchange rates) compensation to Chen's siblings and Chang's mother.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chen's sister said it was clear that Hsieh was greedy and after learning that Chen was wealthy planned to kill the couple.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"She killed 2 people for money. She deserves the death penalty. It is the only way justice can be served," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although Hsieh was found guilty and the court fined her, the families have not received any payments, Chen's sister said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chen family lawyer Wei Yi-lung said the ruling did not meet society's expectations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hsieh committed a heinous crime for money and fabricated stories about why she did it, even laying blame on the victims, Wei said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In another ruling yesterday, the High Court upheld a death sentence for Huang Lin-kai, who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and her mother in October 2013.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Huang, who was 19 and in compulsory military service at the time, went to his girlfriend's house and strangled the mother to death, before raping his girlfriend and strangling her to death with rope.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The retrial judgement said Huang had no regard for human life and committed highly vicious acts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Given that he is likely to reoffend if released, the court said it decided to uphold the death sentence from a lower court's decision.</div><br />Source: Taipei Times, January 11, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Taiwan: High Court overturns Hsieh Yi-han's death sentence, upholds Huang Lin-kai's death verdict

A new Leaf ? 2 witnesses called by Hsieh Yi-han's defense team said that her chances of rehabilitation were high, and the court paid hee...

2:55 AM

Mother of man set to hang in Singapore urges PM to intercede

Mother of man set to hang in Singapore urges PM to intercede

Prabagaran Srivijayan A woman today pleaded with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to intercede on behalf of her son, Prabagaran Srivija...

7:21 AM

Former Aum cultist publishes memoir on gas attacks, cult leader

Former Aum cultist publishes memoir on gas attacks, cult leader

The sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995 killed 13 and left more than 6,000 people injured. A former executive of t...

6:06 AM

Problems Remain in China’s Death-Penalty System Even After Reforms

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBLE0Ug4Rfnnz6Yqs197-3pi8iISWLeqJuAH5jDdKjETU-j2vNl7wWe1lMmgTVy4XMgi1ae5Ut_-g8RBdsCZfLVSf6ag5yU5m5jy8K_20bArHZiQbTwK1CVRbJoXcYHOG5uVgMkC9crA/s1600/executing+drug+trafickers+in+China.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Chinese death-row inmates" border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipBLE0Ug4Rfnnz6Yqs197-3pi8iISWLeqJuAH5jDdKjETU-j2vNl7wWe1lMmgTVy4XMgi1ae5Ut_-g8RBdsCZfLVSf6ag5yU5m5jy8K_20bArHZiQbTwK1CVRbJoXcYHOG5uVgMkC9crA/s400/executing+drug+trafickers+in+China.jpg" title="Chinese death-row inmates" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chinese death-row inmates are marched to a nearby execution ground<br />where they will be put to death by firing squad.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">(Beijing) — Lai Changxing, the kingpin of a multibillion-dollar smuggling ring in the coastal city of Xiamen and once dubbed “China’s most-wanted fugitive” by state media, was given only a life sentence by a Chinese court in 2012, although more than a dozen of his accomplices had been executed by firing squad a decade earlier.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lai's network smuggled products as diverse as cigarettes, cars, oil and textiles. But the 58-year-old was able to literally dodge a bullet after Chinese authorities agreed to drop the death sentence in his case after a 12-year-long extradition battle with Canada.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Critics say Lai’s sentencing highlights the uneven implementation of the death penalty, which is used by government-controlled courts as a means to deter crime — often at the expense of justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amid mounting international pressure and rising public discontent at home over its widespread use of the death penalty, China’s top court has taken a series of steps to reform the system of capital punishment in the past decade.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chinese academics estimate the number of death sentences handed down has dropped sharply since 2007, after the Supreme People’s Court took over the system of reviewing these verdicts that was earlier left in the hands of provincial-level courts. Yet legal reformists say more changes are needed to avoid possible wrongful convictions. They point out that the review happens behind closed doors, often without the presence of defense lawyers, and so are calling for open court-style hearings instead of allowing a small group of Supreme People’s Court judges to have the final say.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The defense lawyer’s voice must be heard during these reviews because they can make or break a life,” said Zhang Qingsong, a founding partner at Beijing’s Shangquan Law Office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under the current system, a person who is sentenced to death by a local court can appeal the verdict to a high court at the provincial or regional level. A death sentence upheld by a high court is then referred to the Supreme People’s Court for review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This review process works as follows: A judge from a lower court wanting to give out a death sentence must first file an application with a three-judge panel at the Supreme People’s Court, and the panel then produces a review report either approving the verdict or disapproving it. This is then referred to a deputy president of the Supreme People’s Court for approval. Next it is submitted to an internal trial committee for the final decision, explained a Supreme People’s Court official who asked not to be named.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The public does not have access to information about the workings of this internal trial committee, which is composed of an unknown number of Supreme Court judges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once a death sentence is upheld, the president of the Supreme Court will issue an execution order that has to be carried out by a lower court within seven days.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But despite its lack of transparency, the current review process is a far cry from the system that existed before 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">'Strike Hard'</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, had decentralized the review system in the 1980s, allowing provincial and regional high courts to have a final say on cases involving capital punishment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The move was part of the “strike hard” anti-crime campaign launched nationwide amid a noticeable uptick in serious felonies such as murder, rape, armed robberies and arson attacks in the earlier years of the country’s reform and opening-up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During this period, judges — many of them former police officers or demobilized soldiers without legal training — were ordered by the Communist Party to be severe. They were often told to expedite trials or to give harsh punishments, well above those prescribed in the penal code, for the sake of “maintaining social order.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The decision to decentralize reviews had eroded the credibility of the review system and the public no longer trusted it as the last resort to address potential miscarriages of justice, according to legal experts, including Li Hongjiang, a Supreme Court judge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During this period, “the review system was made meaningless and toothless because a provincial or regional high court is unlikely to change a death sentence it had already upheld in a subsequent review,” Li wrote in 2007, in an article published by the People’s Judicature, a journal affiliated to the Supreme Court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The string of death sentences overturned and pronounced as wrongful convictions in recent years were all reviewed and given the green light by provincial or regional courts in the 1980s and ’90s.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXXPzXUGrbie2ljiPK4S3QD1liVYSwNhewhrmHe750Z43rTSvVTURHdFbaOrJa4RlYmyTQxwyadTdLWPDVaCb_VLPSPP-uTZkIMDCs-4nSeiy4cGFY2BQvcQ3dHrOyOItu15e_WtBtgU/s1600/Nie+Shubin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nie Shubin" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXXPzXUGrbie2ljiPK4S3QD1liVYSwNhewhrmHe750Z43rTSvVTURHdFbaOrJa4RlYmyTQxwyadTdLWPDVaCb_VLPSPP-uTZkIMDCs-4nSeiy4cGFY2BQvcQ3dHrOyOItu15e_WtBtgU/s400/Nie+Shubin.jpg" title="Nie Shubin" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exonerated Nie Shubin, "hastily executed" during the "strike hard" campaign</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest example is <a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/search/label/Nie%20Shubin" target="_blank">the exoneration of Nie Shubin</a>, 21, from Hebei province, who was executed after being convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman in 1995.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nie was arrested, given a death sentence and hastily executed, largely based on evidence extracted via a forced confession when the “strike hard” campaign was in full force, court documents show.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But after an alleged serial rapist, arrested over a similar crime in the central province of Henan a decade later, confessed to killing the victim in Nie’s case, the previous verdict was put into doubt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It took Nie’s family another 10 years to petition various judicial authorities and courts before a retrial was granted by the Supreme Court in June, and Nie’s name was cleared in early December 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Hebei Provincial People’s High Court, which upheld Nie’s death sentence during an appeal on April 25, 1995, was also in charge of the final review on the verdict. It gave the go-ahead to the execution in a review completed just two days after the appeal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number on death row in China is a closely guarded state secret. But the number of death sentences given out has dropped sharply after the Supreme Court took charge of all reviews in 2007, down from tens of thousands to several thousand, according to estimates by Chinese academics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number of executions each year has also declined from five-digit figures to a several thousand as a result.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Chinese government had previously argued that the number on death row was small given China’s large population. But fewer than 40 people are sentenced to death every year in India, a country with a comparable population, according to Zhao Bingzhi, president of the College for Criminal Law Science at Beijing Normal University.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2016, 30 people were sentenced to death in the United States as of November, one-tenth of the 315 capital punishment verdicts in 1996, according to Washington-based rights group Death Penalty Information Center. There were only 20 executions in the U.S. in 2016.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China's widespread use of capital punishment remains a stumbling block when the country negotiates bilateral extradition treaties with many Western nations such as the U.S and Canada, where most Chinese fugitives are in hiding. This has hampered the anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Only a handful of developed nations, including Spain and France, are among the approximately 40 countries that have signed extradition treaties with China, government data showed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Going Easy on the Noose</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the decision to centralize the review process in 2007 by making the Supreme Court in Beijing the sole body to green light death sentences, the court also removed 22 crimes from the list of 68 capital offenses, including many white-collar financial crimes, in 2011 and 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a document the court released in August 2007, lower courts were also told to “exercise caution” when giving death sentences to people who have killed a spouse over a marital dispute or in confrontations with neighbors, if they have shown remorse and adequately compensated the other party.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This stealthy reform process has cut down the number of death sentences by half and even two-thirds in some regions, according to professor Chen Guangzhong at China University for Political Science and Law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivDOwEFCDym47e6kBZW1IF5_W27LjCSXEG57Nm23SZCEvxh3HYnYboBP2WIe0w9Cyeh7gtd3jbI2JABoxyrbshVuydim-ao2Z1_0ujSuireItiLvDokpSct4h1OwbEYXwqkcr0oRaiUDES/s1600/chine_ex%25C3%25A9cution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Execution in China" border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivDOwEFCDym47e6kBZW1IF5_W27LjCSXEG57Nm23SZCEvxh3HYnYboBP2WIe0w9Cyeh7gtd3jbI2JABoxyrbshVuydim-ao2Z1_0ujSuireItiLvDokpSct4h1OwbEYXwqkcr0oRaiUDES/s400/chine_ex%25C3%25A9cution.jpg" title="Execution in China" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Liver transplants in China  primarily relied on organs harvested<br />from executed inmates." Execution by firing squad in China.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">“We are now more cautious when imposing the death sentences as the Supreme Court has significantly tightened the review process,” said a president of an intermediate court in a western region who asked not to be named.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Why should we bother if our applications for a death penalty won’t pass the reviews by the top court?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over 95% of the death sentences imposed since 2007 have been limited to those who committed serious crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and robberies that result in deaths, according to Zhao from Beijing Normal University, who also serves a director of criminal law research unit under the government-backed China Law Society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">China has also gradually changed the method of execution in most cases from firing squad to lethal injection. In 2015, the country dropped the controversial practice of harvesting organs from executed criminals for use in transplant operations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But given the lack of official data on people on death row, the number of livers harvested served as an indicator of the number of executions in the country for several years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number of liver transplants, which primarily relied on organs harvested from executed inmates, dropped by one-third from 2006 to 1,822 in 2007 when the Supreme Court began to take charge of death sentence reviews, according to the China Liver Transplant Registry, an online liver transplant database backed by the Health Commission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the progress made over the last decade, the death penalty review system is still plagued by a lack of transparency, according to critics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A search of China Judgment Online, a database affiliated with the Supreme Court, by Zhang Peng, a postgraduate student at the China University of Political Science and Law, found 320 cases between Jan.1, 2014, to Aug. 31, 2016, where review documents showed the Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty. But only 28 of the documents, or less than 9% of cases, said that a defense lawyer was involved in the final review.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some academics said that it might be impossible to add another layer of court trials to replace the review system, but the Supreme Court can turn these reviews into open hearings, which allows for greater public scrutiny.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.caixinglobal.com/2017-01-03/101032821.html" target="_blank">Caixin</a>, Shan Yuxiao, Wang Yiyin and Li Rongde, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Problems Remain in China’s Death-Penalty System Even After Reforms

Chinese death-row inmates are marched to a nearby execution ground where they will be put to death by firing squad. (Beijing) — Lai Changxin...

9:45 AM

Death Penalty Movie Week to be held at Tokyo theater

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjy8cBaDopv6QH5NFRtjD_Yzv3QA6q9Obivh6jEnbFTmUvsmSr67CDc9PrTf552UiFP28151oUp7xtrR00-wZqSFDrgSSplH7_OXthyphenhyphenD0GZ0K9pyLY1g6o8N64ZYjYW5_dTn3Kpg4kHRI/s1600/Former+death-row+inmate+Iwao+Hakamada+and+his+sister.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release" border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjy8cBaDopv6QH5NFRtjD_Yzv3QA6q9Obivh6jEnbFTmUvsmSr67CDc9PrTf552UiFP28151oUp7xtrR00-wZqSFDrgSSplH7_OXthyphenhyphenD0GZ0K9pyLY1g6o8N64ZYjYW5_dTn3Kpg4kHRI/s400/Former+death-row+inmate+Iwao+Hakamada+and+his+sister.jpg" title="Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release in March 2014</td></tr></tbody></table>TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The annual Death Penalty Movie Week will be held at a Tokyo theater in February, with eight films from home and abroad providing viewers with an opportunity to think about the "right to life."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The event will take place as pro- and anti-death penalty groups have been facing off at symposiums and on other occasions since the Japan Federation of Bar Associations declared in October it would work for the abolition of capital punishment by 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The eight films to be screened include 2005 German movie "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426578/" target="_blank">Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days</a>," which depicts the anti-Nazi struggle of a student who was executed, and "Freedom Moon," produced in Japan in 2016, that recounts the life of death row inmate Iwao Hakamada.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hakamada, convicted of a 1966 quadruple murder, was released in 2014 after a court decided to reopen the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The film shows how his mental state has deteriorated due to decades-long solitary confinement and the endless fear of execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Korean popular movie "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2659414/" target="_blank">Miracle in Cell No. 7</a>," produced in 2013, will also be screened during the sixth event.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Murder victims are deprived of their lives unjustifiably, but offenders are also robbed of their 'right to live' under capital punishment," said Masakuni Ota, one of the event organizers. "People seem to accept such circumstances without question, at a time when exclusion and intolerance are prevalent around the world."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the event from Feb. 18 to 24 at the Eurospace movie theater in Tokyo's Shibuya district, four movies will be shown each day, accompanied by sessions with guest speakers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The scheduled speakers include actress Kirin Kiki, who played the mother of a death row inmate in a movie based on a true story, and pop singer Tsuyoshi Ujiki, whose father was convicted of war crimes after World War II.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We welcome both those seeking abolition of the death penalty and those who support or accept capital punishment" so the issue is discussed from various viewpoints, Ota said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The previous five Death Penalty Movie Week events attracted a total of around 6,000 viewers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the four years since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to power, 17 inmates have been hanged, with a government survey showing over 80 percent of people in Japan support the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, Tokyo was urged by the U.N. Human Rights Committee in 2014 to "give due consideration to the abolition of the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Currently, more than two-thirds of nations have abolished the death penalty by law or in practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For further information on the screenings, call Eurospace at 03-3461-0211 or check its website at <a href="http://www.eurospace.co.jp/" target="_blank">http://www.eurospace.co.jp/</a></div><br />Source: Mainichi, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Hakamada: Tapes point to police duress in miscarriage of justice</h2><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8vj-u4mA02VRwROPa4sr8grOzhtYYHKjaBJd4YSJsFC8IhcTKrEgvqcY8Yt8LyzUy96Ci-Ht9mqZvJjLB_KV8pNigT2V_nN3t_ABNgXLifi_bu_WhtyY4a9-jj-vNxxFPCmPdD9bpnk/s1600/Iwao+Hakamada.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row." border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8vj-u4mA02VRwROPa4sr8grOzhtYYHKjaBJd4YSJsFC8IhcTKrEgvqcY8Yt8LyzUy96Ci-Ht9mqZvJjLB_KV8pNigT2V_nN3t_ABNgXLifi_bu_WhtyY4a9-jj-vNxxFPCmPdD9bpnk/s400/Iwao+Hakamada.jpg" title="Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Police records of interrogations that led to Iwao Hakamada being wrongfully convicted of multiple slayings show that the one-time death row inmate was not allowed to use the restroom as officers relentlessly tried to force him to confess.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just two days later, Hakamada, now 80, confessed to killing a family of four and setting fire to their home in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A former professional boxer, Hakamada spent more than three decades on death row. He was released in March 2014 after the Shizuoka District Court ordered a retrial, having concluded that his conviction was likely based on faked evidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense lawyers pressing for an early retrial presented documents to the Tokyo High Court on Dec. 21, highlighting apparent brazen violations of procedures during Hakamada's interrogation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The high court is weighing whether to hear Hakamada’s case. Prosecutors have appealed the district court decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hakamada, who is from Hamamatsu in the prefecture, had his death penalty finalized in 1980.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense lawyers said 24 tape recordings of Hakamada being questioned were discovered at the police storage room in October 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The tapes recorded interrogations between his arrest on Aug. 18, 1966, and late September that year after he was indicted. The lawyers played the tapes to get a better grasp of how the interrogation was carried out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They said a session on Sept. 4 was particularly problematic as it appeared Hakamada was deprived of the use of restroom facilities, as he later testified in court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the tape, an investigator trying to get him to confess, says, “It must be the case.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After more exchanges with the investigator, Hakamada says, “I would like to use the bathroom.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The investigator responds, “Why don’t you reply (to my question) before doing so?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawyers said the recording makes clear that Hakamada had to urinate inside the interrogation room.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Get a lavatory pan. Let him urinate here,” the interrogator is heard saying.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During his trial at the Shizuoka District Court in December 1967, Hakamada testified that he was forced to urinate in the interrogation room.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I was not permitted to go to restroom on many occasions,” he said. “I was not permitted to do it properly.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The interrogator in question denied Hakamada’s account when he appeared in court as a witness in 1968.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There never was such a thing,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The defense team also said that among the tapes were recordings of conversations between Hakamada and his lawyers, suggesting that the police eavesdropped on them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lawyers argued that the investigators violated various laws in the course of establishing the case against Hakamada and during his trial. This, they said, was further ammunition for an early retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Forcing a suspect to urinate in the interrogation room constituted assault and cruelty by special pubic officers, and eavesdropping and recording interviews between defense lawyers and a client constituted an act of malpractice, they noted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They also noted that lying in court constitutes perjury.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201612220063.html" target="_blank">The Asahi Shimbun</a>, December 22, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

Death Penalty Movie Week to be held at Tokyo theater

Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release in March 2014 TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The annual Death Penalty Movie Week will be held at a...

6:46 AM

China: Arsonist sentenced to death

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7GVelHj4_t2bKHP0veWPhkebidQnsYMwmZ87HJpQrIYLF4o3MKexTo-8bhig8CxbzQDf9LB-uY12IEitYLDtN2Z-CXmoXO6MadlA9rJNjwxwWIwV47ONJN9u0n_WGBKQoKazC4cZy16g/s1600/Chinese+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7GVelHj4_t2bKHP0veWPhkebidQnsYMwmZ87HJpQrIYLF4o3MKexTo-8bhig8CxbzQDf9LB-uY12IEitYLDtN2Z-CXmoXO6MadlA9rJNjwxwWIwV47ONJN9u0n_WGBKQoKazC4cZy16g/s320/Chinese+flag.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">December 30, 2016: A man convicted of setting a bus on fire two years ago was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Liuzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The defendant Song Yanli set the bus on fire using gasoline to vent his anger over a personal dispute on Nov. 21, 2014 in Liuzhou, Guangxi. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eleven people were injured, and the bus was left as an empty shell. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Song fled the scene but was caught by police three days later. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Song, convicted of arson, posed a severe threat to public security and showed no remorse, a court statement said. Accordingly, the court sentenced Song to the death penalty. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The statement did not mention whether the defendant would appeal. </div><br />Source: Xinhua, December 30, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td>   <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td>  </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JBVXEBZLP3WKW" target="_blank">DONATE!</a></b></div><form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_blank"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/fr_FR/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" /></div></form><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>

China: Arsonist sentenced to death

December 30, 2016: A man convicted of setting a bus on fire two years ago was sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of L...

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