“Stand! Ready! Aim! Fire!” was the command of the senior officer that led the gun squad executing Von Stauffenberg in the movie Valkyrie. The exact same scene happened in four different cities of Taiwan on April 19, recording the first executions in the country this year. Although under tremendous international pressure, the Taiwanese government executed a dozen criminals during the past six months. Also, it seems as if they will not stop.

Taiwan is one of the countries currently executing death penalty along with Afghanistan and Yemen. In fact, Taiwan is the only country in East Asia to do so. The history of the death penalty in Taiwan can be traced back to Taiwan’s White Terror period, which began with the imposition of martial law in May 1949 and lasted until July 1987. During the White Terror period, the government sentenced to death and executed an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people on politically motivated charges.

Since the end of martial law, successive governments in Taiwan have wrestled with the legacy of these abuses and the need for compensating victims and their families. However, when the last Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng was in office from 2006 to 2009, there were no criminals executed, as a promise to international organizations, though over 60 criminals were waiting to be executed. The capital punishment was resumed in 2010 when the new minister Tseng Yung-fu took office in response to an outburst of domestic strong pro-capital punishment demonstration that year.

International Black Sheep

“We are horrified,” World Coalition said in a statement, “it sends a wrong message to the world community.” This comment has been echoed by a host of international rights organizations, all of whom opposed Taiwan’s enforcement of the death penalty.

The executions themselves have been heavily criticized. “A dozen executions in Taiwan since December 2012 are a step backwards for Taiwan’s justice system and Taiwan’s official rhetoric in support of human rights,” said Sophie Richardson, the China Director of Human Watch. Richardson also insisted that capital punishment should be prohibited under any circumstances and is “an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment”. Many human rights organizations have requested permission from the Taiwanese government to visit and do full scale evaluations on Taiwan’s human rights.

Those organizations are not criticizing Taiwan just for executing criminals; their main argument is that the country both signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which commits the parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals. Although the official statement of ICCPR does not include abolition of death penalty as a mandatory section the parties have to guarantee, most human rights organizations argue that the death penalty should be included.

▲ President of Taiwan Ma Ying Jeou. Provided by infosurhoy.com

Getting Political

“I strongly condemn the execution of six people in four prisons throughout Taiwan,” German Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Barbara Lochbihler said. “To take a life is not justice, it is revenge.” Lochbihler is a leading member of the German Green Party; therefore her speech indicates that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) are not the only ones that oppose the death penalty.

In fact, the European Union (EU) publicly condemned Taiwan and has been repeatedly called for authorities there to establish a legal moratorium as a matter of urgency and to work for abolishing capital punishments. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said that she “deplores” the six executions. She added that the action “goes against the abolitionist trend worldwide.”

On February 20, the Amnesty International (AI) gave Taiwan a petition calling for a suspension of the death penalty with more than 100,000 signatures from French citizens. The opposition to Taiwan for executing criminals seems to be escalated.

Despite the economic and political merits regarding citizens’ will, questions still remain. Many international political experts asserted that employing the death penalty could diminish Taiwan’s effort to distinguish itself from China, which claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island and also administers the death penalty. Since the current Taiwanese President Ma Ying Jeeu took office in 2008, he has tried to use so-called "soft power" to highlight Taiwanese cultural and humanitarian achievements that China is unable to match.

Taiwan Deputy Justice Minister Chen Shou-Huaug has told the press that only murderers who kill more than one person or use brutality would face the death penalty. He says the government is seeking understanding from its critics. He also mentioned that Taiwan has reached out to diplomats in EU countries and diplomatic missions throughout the world to explain, in specific terms, the reasons Taiwan must enforce the death penalty.

Long before this incident, Taiwan has been a politically solitary country. Because of China’s “One China Policy”, China has placed a tremendous amount of political and economic pressure on other nations. As a result, Taiwan has not been recognized as a nation with political autonomy. Now that even European nations are pointing fingers at Taiwan, the diplomatic situation of Taiwan could deteriorate. Although the Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said that international criticisms would not affect its relations with other countries, for a developed country that has formal diplomatic relations with only 23 countries, more political difficulty is very important to prevent.

▲ A poster of an anti-death penalty activity in Taiwan. Provided by sean.su

The Preservationists

The main reason why the Taiwanese government has such a resolute attitude towards enforcing their law is their resolute citizens. According to the latest poll held in February by Chung Chong National University, 91 percent of Taiwanese citizens support the death penalty. Such a high support rate and the threat of public protest leave the government no choice but to execute criminals according to the law.

Such a huge portion of Taiwanese citizens support the death penalty for many reasons. Among them, the preservationists in Taiwan claim that the death penalty is the most effective way of preventing serious crimes such as murder and drug trafficking, and that executing the criminal is more financially reasonable than imprisoning the criminal for the rest of his or her life.

“As to the many penalties out there, the main purpose of the death penalty is to act as a deterrent against crimes,” said Lu Chia-Hua (27, Taichung). “Without it the criminals will not hesitate to kill because all they can be punished with is a life sentence in prison at most.” Indeed, numerous studies published over the past few years are demonstrating that the death penalty saves lives.

Professor Joanna M. Shepherd of Emory University concluded in his research in 1996 that, on average, one execution results in three fewer murders. Also, he asserted that shorter waits on death row are associated with increased deterrence. More specifically, for each additional 2.75-year reduction on death row before execution, one murder is deterred.

There are local cases in Taiwan that support these hypotheses. On December 1, 2012, Cheng, a 30-year-old male living in Tainan, Taiwan, killed Fang, a 10-year-old boy. The reason for the high attention regarding this case is the fact that Cheng killed the boy for no particular reason. If there was one, it is “I just wanted to kill someone,” according to what Cheng said to the media.

Cheng’s statement is what angered Taiwanese citizens the most. “In Taiwan, killing a couple of people will not get me a death sentence.” Although Cheng has not been officially sentenced, it is predicted by experts looking at the history of similar cases that Cheng is unlikely to be sentenced to death. This analysis was broadcast by Taiwanese media many times and therefore generated a very one-sided reaction from Taiwanese citizens.

Wang Wei-Jun, the director of the Taiwanese Committee of Improvement of Children’s Rights, gathered 100,000 online signatures on the Internet requesting the government to put Cheng on death row, and execute him shortly. Although the Taiwanese government did not make any announcemeuts specifically to address this request signed by an astonishing number of people, it is believed by many political experts that the six executions that happened on December 21, 2012 were in response to their petition.

The Abolitionists

One of the reasons why the preservationists, both in Taiwan and around the world, support the death penalty is its seemingly low costs. It is very easy for one to think that because there will be almost no costs after a criminal is executed, the death penalty is more financially sensible than life imprisonment. Although it seems logical, it is heavily misunderstood. Death row criminals cost the government more than any other type of criminal does.

From evidence gathered by the Death Penalty Information Center, a research organization that opposes capital punishment, many facts can be certified. According to statistics regarding the death penalty in California, the United States (U.S.), it costs the Californian government at least three million U.S. dollars on average to execute a death row criminal. This number is 20 times more than the costs of imprisoning a life sentence criminal. The reason for this high price is that when the district attorney requests a criminal to death, the criminal will be treated very differently from other criminals.

In order to prevent innocent people from being executed, death row criminals are required to face at least two trials, with different witnesses and special juries that require long selection processes. There is often also a 15-to-20-year appeals process, during which the criminal will be held inside maximum security cells with expensive specialized security personnel. However, simply getting rid of this process would be undemocratic and would increase the number of innocent people put to death.

Although the specific details of these matters in Taiwan are not publicized, there are many facts which make people believe that the situation in Taiwan is no different from that in the U.S. The case of Su Jian He is a good example. He was convicted in 1990 for the murder of two people. It took 22 years, six trials and countless appeals to get the official sentence. Because of his poverty, the government was required to pay all of the court costs, including public lawyer fees and transportation. This same situation is applied to most of the 50 criminals on death row in Taiwan.

Another major argument of the abolitionists is that the death penalty has a very high risk of wrongful execution. “After a criminal is executed, there is no chance of undoing anything,” said Alson Chao (19, Boston). As a Taiwanese citizen who is an abolitionist, Chao believes that life imprisonment could prevent any wrongful executions totally.

The abolitionists have a point. There are several cases of innocent criminals being executed in Taiwan. Jiang Guoqing, a Taiwanese Air Force soldier, was executed in 1997 for raping and murdering a five-year-old girl. However, in January 28, 2011, over 13 years after the execution, Xu Rongzhou confessed to the prosecutor that he had been responsible for the crime. The peculiar fact of this case is that it only took one year for Jiang to be executed after he was caught. In addition, the Air Force Anti-Intelligence Agency, the team that investigated this case, was accused of torturing Jiang in order to get his confession.

After Jiang was found to be innocent, President Ma publicly apologized to the public and Jiang’s family, who had never given up on proving Jiang’s innocence. However, according to a poll conducted by the Taiwan Department of Ststistics, days after Ma’s apology, Taiwanese citizens still support the death penalty as strongly as before, claiming that one wrongful execution does not diminish the whole purpose and necessity of the penalty.

What Happens Next?

The Taiwanese government has replied to the international condemnation by saying that it would be "difficult" for Taiwan to abolish the death penalty at this stage and they have set up a special committee to examine different possibilities for the gradual abolition of the death penalty. This indicates that the government may eventually abolish the death penalty, although it is uncertain when that would actually happen. Nonetheless, unless Taiwanese citizens change their opinion, the government will be unlikely to abolish the death penalty any time soon.