Sidelights | Encountering the Sovereign Machine Through the Haze: Understanding and Telling the Stories of Wrongful Convictions - Hai-Wang's Daybreak Lecture Series

This was an unusual lecture. Members of the organizations supporting Chiu Ho-Shun served as moderators, while the two panelists were themselves full-time NGO workers-and both had lived through wrongful convictions. How do Su Chien-Ho and Hsu Tzu-Chiang understand and tell the story of wrongful conviction? And how do they see their own role now that they are supporting Chiu Ho-Shun?

Behind Every System Are People

Moderator Yang Kang: "A wrongful conviction does not mean the gun of 'state justice' is broken. The gun is working exactly as designed; the problem is that it can now point at almost anyone and fire indiscriminately. The name Chiu Ho-Shun could belong to anyone-it could be someone you know. Wrongful convictions are something post-authoritarian Taiwan has to confront. In one sense there were fewer 'wrongful convictions' in the past because people had so little space even to call an injustice wrongful. That is the paradox: of course we want fewer wrongful convictions, but the fact that we can identify and expose them is also evidence of some progress in Taiwan's justice system.

We talk about 'the system' as though it were something hard and abstract. But behind every system are people."

Helping People Wrongfully Convicted Is Also a Way of Redeeming Myself

Su Chien-Ho: "When I was younger, I used to think, 'If he wasn't a bad person, why would the court sentence him to death?' If you obey the law and live your life properly, you won't end up on death row. It was only when I myself was wrongfully sentenced to death that I understood what that assumption really meant.

For me, supporting people who have been wrongfully convicted is also a way of redeeming myself. Beyond telling people about what happened to me, I hope that by caring about wrongful convictions we can make the justice system fairer and society more harmonious."

If the Judiciary Will Not Reflect on Its Own Mistakes, Society Will Put Pressure on It

Hsu Tzu-Chiang: "My case went through nine retrials and more than seventy judges. To be honest, I gave up very early. I could not understand it: the Prosecutor-General himself had said there were problems with the case, so why wouldn't the courts retry it? At that point I had completely lost hope in the judiciary. It sentenced me to death, and I sentenced Taiwan's judiciary to death in return-I thought it was beyond saving. No matter what I said, no one believed me. I lost my trust in people altogether. The media sensationalized the case so much that even I started wondering whether I had actually done it. They reported it as though everything were true, almost like they were writing a novel.

Our judiciary has not yet progressed to the point where it can reflect on its own mistakes and admit them. But society can put pressure on it. That is a major reason we come out and speak: we want more people to know that a man named Chiu Ho-Shun has now been held in a detention center for 32 years."

Don't Think Sharing an Article Does Nothing - You May Be Changing A-Shun's Life

Hsu Tzu-Chiang: "I used to pay no attention to things like this. Even when I knew something wrong was happening, I ignored it, so the wrong kept happening. Then one day it happened to me. You could say I was unlucky. That is why I always remind people: when you help Chiu Ho-Shun, don't think you are only helping Chiu Ho-Shun. You are also helping prevent something like this from happening to you. Saving him is also protecting yourself and the people around you.

Living in society also means taking some responsibility for it. So don't think that clicking 'Like' on Facebook or sharing an article does nothing. You may be changing A-Shun's life. It matters. It absolutely matters."

The Death Penalty Gets Rid of a Person, but It Does Not Solve the Problem

Audience Question: "You mentioned that you or Chiu Ho-Shun may be examples of the death-penalty system failing. Do you think there are examples of the system succeeding?"

Su Chien-Ho: "Imagine I take the train from Taipei to Zhunan. If one out of every ten trains crashes, would you dare get on? The biggest problem is that this has already happened. The question is what we do about it. When we hand power over to the government, we often forget that the other hand has to keep watch over the power we have given it."

Hsu Tzu-Chiang: "A successful example? For me, the death penalty itself should not exist. If you ask people who have lived under a death sentence, I doubt any of us would support it. The choice is whether you are willing to risk killing the wrong person or instead impose a severe punishment. The real question is: what does the death penalty solve? Has anyone really thought about that? It gets rid of a person, but it does not solve the problem. You still do not know what went wrong in the structure of society."