The Voice of the Suffering: Death Penalty Wrongful Convictions Inflict Suffering on More People

According to a China Times report on March 21 titled "The Voice of the Suffering: Reducing the Death Penalty Inflicts Suffering on More People," it stated that "it would be best to execute all death row inmates at once, which would provide closure to the victims' families and spare the death row inmates further suffering," and specifically named Chiou Ho-shun and Cheng Hsing-tse, two death row inmates in wrongful conviction cases. The content of this article is divorced from the facts and necessitates an immediate and stern clarification.

Regardless of whether the death penalty should be abolished, the government and society must properly safeguard the rights and interests of victims and their families, providing them with adequate psychological, financial, medical, and educational support. We will continue to strongly supervise the government to invest more resources in building a comprehensive victim protection system.

Although Taiwanese society has debates regarding the abolition of the death penalty, the people of Taiwan will never agree to the judiciary creating a second Chiang Kuo-ch'ing tragedy. The cases of Chiou Ho-shun, Cheng Hsing-tse, and Chiang Kuo-ch'ing share a high degree of similarity: all investigation processes obtained defendants' confessions through improper means, with both Chiou Ho-shun and Cheng Hsing-tse subjected to torture and coerced confessions; furthermore, the Chiang, Ch'iu, and Cheng cases all lack qualified scientific evidence proving the defendants' guilt. The Chiou Ho-shun case has clear evidence of police torture, alongside Chiou Ho-shun's alibi. In the Cheng Hsing-tse case, no professional forensic appraisal report, crime scene forensics report, ballistic comparison, or wound analysis was conducted, and there were not even Cheng Hsing-tse's fingerprints on the murder weapon. Such a sloppy death sentence not only fails to realize justice, but if executed rashly, it will create further irreparable injustice.

Furthermore, the report claimed that "the Cheng family frequently knocked on doors, reaching out to Su's wife through legislators, councilors, and even charitable organizations to constantly urge her to forgive Cheng," which is completely contrary to the facts. Although Cheng Hsing-tse's family faced hardships due to his wrongful imprisonment, neither the Cheng family nor the wrongful conviction rescue organizations ever privately contacted the surviving family members of Police Officer Su, let alone urged them to offer forgiveness. Citing anonymous sources without verification and balanced reporting clearly shows a lack of professionalism and risks placing the victims' surviving family members in an unjust light, which is deeply regrettable and distressing.

The blood of wrongful souls cannot heal the wounds of victims; instead, it creates more hard-to-heal scars. Reopening investigations and clarifying the truth are actions that a responsible government should take.