Swiftly Reveal the Truth of the Chiou Ho-shun Case and Fulfill the Original Intent of the Institutional Design | The Volunteer Defense Counsel and Rescue Team for Chiou Ho-shun

Chiou Ho-shun is a well-known wrongful death-penalty case in Taiwan and the prisoner who has awaited execution for the longest time in history, having served 35 years in the Taipei Detention Center to date. Since the establishment of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office Review Committee for Finalized Conviction Cases (hereinafter referred to as the Review Committee), the volunteer defense counsel and the rescue team submitted an application for review to the Review Committee on May 4, 2018, in accordance with the "Directions for Prosecutor Offices Handling Review Operations for Finalized Conviction Cases" (hereinafter referred to as the Review Committee Directions). They hoped to re-examine the evidence and facts of the Chiou Ho-shun case and urge the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office to petition for a retrial or extraordinary appeal on his behalf, thereby seeking justice for Chiou Ho-shun.

However, the Review Committee dismissed the volunteer defense counsel's application on January 22, 2020. It was not until the Control Yuan published an investigative report and once again assisted in applying for a review on Chiou Ho-shun's behalf that the Review Committee resumed its examination. Yet, to this day, aside from asking the volunteer defense counsel and the Control Yuan to clarify related doubts, the Review Committee has not made any decision regarding the Chiou Ho-shun case, nor has it informed them of the current processing progress (the relevant timeline of the case is detailed in the table below).

According to the Review Committee Directions, the primary purpose of the Review Committee is to enable prosecutors bearing objective obligations to assist parties in wrongful or erroneous conviction cases in petitioning for retrials or extraordinary appeals, and to expect prosecutors with investigative powers to re-examine doubts in wrongful or erroneous cases, thereby encouraging the parties to cooperate with judicial institutions rather than relying solely on the defendant to file a retrial independently to correct a wrongful judgment. However, since the establishment of the Review Committee, although it has accepted about 50 applications, only 4 have successfully passed review. Among them, 1 case was able to swiftly open a retrial and be acquitted because a co-defendant had already successfully applied for a retrial and been acquitted; however, the other 2 retrial cases did not achieve the same result. In addition, an application for an extraordinary appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Prosecutor's Office. Based on the above results, the current operation of the Review Committee makes it difficult to realize the original intent of the institution, resulting in wrongful or erroneous conviction cases entering the Review Committee having almost no chance of obtaining a retrial or extraordinary appeal. In terms of investigation, the Review Committee only conducts routine file reviews and investigations without exercising public authority to thoroughly investigate other suspicious aspects, frustrating the original expectations of parties in wrongful and erroneous conviction cases for prosecutors to assist in investigation and reveal the truth. At the same time, the discussions of the Review Committee are not made public; unless the parties participate in the explanations in person, it is impossible to understand the meeting progress and related concerns of the Review Committee members.

In view of the operational problems of the Review Committee and related regulations, there is evidently a need for prompt amendments. Notably, the current Prosecutor-General, Hsing T'ai-chao, raised the concept of a "cross-level, cross-jurisdiction" wrongful-conviction rescue platform during his interpellation in the Legislative Yuan on April 14, 2022. Therefore, the defense counsel urges the Prosecutor-General to implement relevant policies as soon as possible, enabling the Review Committee of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office and the Review Committee of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office to work hand in hand toward this common goal. At the same time, the Review Committee Directions should be promptly revised to impose an obligation on investigative prosecutors to thoroughly investigate relevant evidence and to ensure the transparency of the review progress, with a view to fulfilling the original intent of the establishment of the Review Committee.

Chronology of the Case

Date	Event	Remarks
April 7, 1988	Chiou Ho-shun was detained due to another case.
February 4, 1989	Prosecutors indicted Chiou Ho-shun and others on charges of kidnapping for ransom.
August 3, 1994	The Control Yuan announced Investigative Report No. (82) Yuan-Tai-I-I-Tzu 1608.
September 29, 1994	The Control Yuan passed an impeachment case proposed by former Control Member Wang Ch'ing-feng, impeaching 10 police officers and 2 prosecutors who investigated the Lu Cheng case. The grounds for impeachment were that the police and prosecutors "used violence and intimidation" against the individuals involved and "closed the case hastily" during the investigation.
May 12, 2011	The Taiwan High Court handed down its judgment on the 11th remand, sentencing Chiou Ho-shun to death and deprivation of civil rights for life.	Taiwan High Court 98th Year Chu-Shang-Chung-Keng-(11)-Tzu No. 7 Criminal Judgment.
July 28, 2011	The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, finalizing the case.	Supreme Court 100th Year T'ai-Shang-Tzu No. 4177 Criminal Judgment.
July 15, 2016	The Prosecutor-General of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office filed an extraordinary appeal.
December 6, 2016	The Control Yuan announced Investigative Report No. 102st Year Ssu-Tiao-Tzu 32.
December 8, 2016	The Control Yuan announced Investigative Report No. 103rd Year Ssu-Tiao-Tzu 38.
July 27, 2017	The Supreme Court dismissed the extraordinary appeal filed by the Prosecutor-General.	Supreme Court 106th Year T'ai-Fei-Tzu No. 3 Criminal Judgment.
May 4, 2018	The volunteer defense counsel and rescue team for the Chiou Ho-shun case submitted an opinion paper urging review of a finalized conviction case in accordance with the "Directions for Prosecutor Offices Handling Review Operations for Finalized Conviction Cases".
January 22, 2020	The volunteer defense counsel and rescue team for the Chiou Ho-shun case received the High Prosecutors Office's dismissal of the application for the opinion paper urging review of a finalized conviction case.
June 11, 2020	The Control Yuan announced Investigative Report No. 109 Ssu-Tiao-Tzu 44.
November 18, 2021	The volunteer defense counsel and rescue team for the Chiou Ho-shun case submitted an opinion paper urging review of a controversial finalized death-penalty case in accordance with the "Supreme Prosecutor's Office Directions for Handling Review Operations for Controversial Finalized Death-Penalty Cases".
March 23, 2022	The volunteer defense counsel and rescue team for the Chiou Ho-shun case received an official letter from the Supreme Prosecutor's Office (requesting the High Prosecutors Office to report the results to the Supreme Prosecutor's Office for processing after the investigation of the Chiou Ho-shun case is completed).
May 13, 2022	The International Review Committee for the Third State Reports under the Covenants issued its concluding observations, explicitly stating in paragraph 72 that the government "should pardon Chiou Ho-shun, who has served 33 years on death row".

Spokespersons

Convener of the Volunteer Defense Counsel for the Chiou Ho-shun Case: Attorney Yu Po-hsiang
Executive Director of the Taiwan Association to Suppress the Death Penalty: Executive Director Lin Hsin-i
Secretary General of Amnesty International Taiwan: Secretary General Ch'iu I-ling
Executive Director of the Taiwan Innocence Project: Executive Director Lo Shih-hsiang

Participating Organizations

Volunteer Defense Counsel for the Chiou Ho-shun Case
Taiwan Association to Suppress the Death Penalty
Amnesty International Taiwan
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Covenant Watch, Taiwan
Taiwan Innocence Project
Judicial Reform Foundation

Press Contact

Staff Attorney of the Judicial Reform Foundation: Attorney Chiao Cheng-hsiang