Who Is Chen Ching-Kai?

Chen Ching-Kai is a former national handball player whose vision was severely impaired in a traffic accident. Afterward, he worked hard to make his behavior resemble that of a sighted person, but those adaptations were treated as evidence that he had faked blindness to obtain insurance benefits. On February 14, 2018, his criminal conviction became final: he was sentenced to one year and two months in prison, and more than NT$5.22 million in insurance benefits paid by three insurers were ordered confiscated-Nanshan Life (a policy he had held since high school), Mingtai Fire & Marine Insurance (the at-fault driver's compulsory automobile liability insurer), and Cathay Life (student insurance through National Changhua University of Education). All three insurers also brought civil actions seeking repayment. Chen has maintained his innocence from the outset, and his legal team has pursued relief in both the criminal and civil cases.

Status of the Case

1. Second Criminal Retrial Petition Denied

   After the criminal judgment became final, the legal team filed a first petition for retrial, identifying important evidence in the record that had not been considered. In June 2018, the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch Court denied the petition in Ruling 107-Su-Tsai-Tzu No. 44. In October 2018, the Control Yuan released Investigation Report 107-Ssu-Tiao-0048. The Control Yuan had commissioned a professional team led by Professor Hung Lan of National Central University's Graduate Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience together with physicians from Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the team again confirmed extremely significant impairment in Chen Ching-Kai's visual processing system: even under strong external visual stimulation, activity in his visual system remained extremely low. The legal team relied on these findings in a second retrial petition, but the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch Court again denied relief in April 2019 in Ruling 107-Su-Tsai-Tzu No. 187. The reasons given revealed substantial misunderstandings of vision science and biases rooted in sighted people's assumptions.

2. Civil Actions Seeking Repayment of Insurance Benefits

   On August 27, 2020, the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch Court ruled in the civil retrial between Mingtai Fire & Marine Insurance and Chen Ching-Kai concerning repayment of insurance benefits. Chen prevailed and was not required to return the benefits. Nanshan Life reached a settlement with him, while the Cathay Life retrial remained pending.

3. What's Next?

   • After the civil litigation is substantially concluded, the legal team plans to file a third criminal retrial petition later this year.
   • Expand the traveling lecture program.

Workshop Program

To help more attorneys understand the Chen Ching-Kai case from the perspectives of law, medicine, vision science, and special education, we will hold three sessions in northern, central, and southern Taiwan. Speakers will walk participants through the details of the case from different professional perspectives. Participants will also work together to revise existing materials and develop a new set of materials for the next round of traveling lectures.

When JRF later receives invitations to speak, we will ask trained participants about their availability and rotate speakers into campus events and public lectures. The aim is to help audiences see the different dimensions of wrongful-conviction advocacy and systemic reform raised by the Chen Ching-Kai case. This is part of the effort to clear his name and, through a concrete case, a direct form of rule-of-law and human-rights education.

Workshop Sessions