On August 10, 1990, a captain's karaoke bar police-killing incident occurred in Chiayi, resulting in death sentences for Ch'en Jung-chieh and Wang Hsin-fu. Ch'en Jung-chieh was swiftly executed by the state, while Wang Hsin-fu returned to Taiwan for trial in 2006, received a final death sentence in 2011, and has been detained in Tainan Detention Center ever since.

This case from 33 years ago shocked Taiwan during the early lifting of martial law and Chiayi, where social mores were relatively conservative. Those who kill must die, and killing a police officer is utterly unforgivable. More than thirty years after the incident, the memory may have faded for those who lived through it, and for generations born after 1990, it is likely unheard of.

Yet this case continues to profoundly affect Wang Hsin-fu and his family to this day.

Wang Hsin-fu was accused of instigating Ch'en Jung-chieh to shoot and kill two police officers. However, this narrative relied entirely on testimonial evidence, with no scientific evidence whatsoever to prove that Wang Hsin-fu instigated another to commit a shooting. Ch'en Jung-chieh, who advanced this narrative, has already been executed, and other eyewitnesses who previously gave similarly unfavorable testimonies against Wang Hsin-fu have successively recanted in court, stating they did so under police torture.

With no fingerprints on the murder weapon and no motive for the crime, an absurd line of reasoning led to Wang Hsin-fu's death sentence. To this day, Wang Hsin-fu is still waiting for rescue.

33 Years later, we return to Chiayi, hoping to invite more friends in Chiayi to come together to care about this case and help him reclaim overdue truth and a reopened fair trial.

Moderator

Lo Li-han Advocacy Specialist, Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty

Speakers

Ts'ai Ch'ung-lung Director, Associate Professor at the Department of Communication, National Chung Cheng University

Amnesty International Group 39 

A-p'ei Grandniece of Wang Hsin-fu

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• Time: 08/11 (Fri.) 18:30-21:00
• Location: Dao Hu Bookstore (No. 86, Beixing St., Xixing Dist., Chiayi City 600)

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August 13, 26 years ago, was the day Chiang Kuo-ching was wrongfully executed.

In 1996, Chiang Kuo-ching was accused of involvement in a case where a young girl was sexually assaulted and murdered. At the time, he was subjected to improper interrogation by counter-intelligence personnel who lacked the status of military judicial police, resulting in a false confession and ultimately his wrongful death. This case took 15 years, finally obtaining exoneration in 2011. At that time, the state compensated Chiang's family over 100 million NTD, but unfortunately, Chiang Kuo-ching's life could never be brought back.

In 2001, in a robbery-murder case at a factory in China, Tu Ming-hsiung and Tu Ming-lang were accused of heavy involvement. However, witnesses were in China, their testimonies were not subjected to cross-examination, and physical evidence was not sent back to Taiwan for appraisal. This absurd prosecution resulted in an acquittal in the first instance, but reversed to a death sentence in the second instance. In 2012, the Supreme Court finalized the death sentence in this case. Amidst frequent protests of innocence by the defendants and interventions by civil society groups for their rescue, they were swiftly executed in 2014. This case has yet to be exonerated to this day.

If one thinks the 1990s belong to the last century and 2014 was 10 years ago, regretfully, the rescues of Ch'iu Hsin-shun and Wang Hsin-fu are still ongoing.

The existence of the death penalty system inevitably entails the risk of wrongful execution; this is a reality everyone must accept.

Today we invite Chou Sheng-ch'i, defense lawyer for the Tu brothers, and Kuo Hao-jen, defense lawyer for the Ch'iu Hsin-shun case, to discuss these cases together, along with their commonalities and connections. Finally, what kind of judicial system and structure causes us to seemingly continuously produce one death penalty wrongful conviction after another? And how can such outcomes be fundamentally prevented?

Moderator

Yang Tzu-t'ing Director of Southern Office, Taiwan Association for Human Rights

Speakers

Kuo Hao-jen Attorney-at-Law

Chou Sheng-ch'i Attorney-at-Law

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• Time: 8/13 (Sun.) 18:30-20:30
• Location: Cheng Chung Books (B1, No. 120, Sec. 2, Ximen Rd., West Central Dist., Tainan City)

Online Registration

August 13, 26 years ago, was the day Chiang Kuo-ching was wrongfully executed. 

On this day last year, we took to the streets, holding a street campaign event titled "Kuo-ching is Dead, Hoping for the Return of Hsin-fu and Shun". At that time, we stood on the streets of Taipei's Ximending, and among the bustling crowds, quite a few were willing to pause for individual cases.

One year later on the same day, we have come to Tainan to continue telling people about these cases.

Chiang Kuo-ching was wrongfully executed by the state on this day in 1997, taking 15 years to finally be exonerated in 2011. The state compensated Chiang's family over 100 million NTD, but could never compensate for Chiang Kuo-ching's life.

Unfortunately, this lesson did not bring true profound reflection to the state. Three years after paying compensation, the Ministry of Justice remained unwilling to achieve "careful verification and evidence gathering", and in late April 2014, arbitrarily and hastily executed the "Tu Brothers" case, whose defendants repeatedly proclaimed their innocence and for whom civil society groups intervened to rescue. After a trip to China and back, they were inexplicably accused of carrying five human lives, relying entirely on interrogation records made by the Chinese Public Security Bureau, unfamiliar witnesses, unseen physical evidence, and unexaminable appraisal reports. The place where the Tu brothers were detained at the time is Tainan, where we have come today.

You can perhaps say Chiang Kuo-ching belongs to the previous generation, but how do you face the Tu brothers' case? You can perhaps say the Tu brothers' case happened nearly ten years ago, but how do you speak of Ch'iu Hsin-shun and Wang Hsin-fu?

In death penalty wrongful conviction rescues, we are fortunate to leave some people behind, but we can never save some others. And there is still another group to whom we continuously dedicate efforts and expand rescue teams—perhaps there is still a chance to keep them. People like Ch'iu Hsin-shun, and people like Wang Hsin-fu.

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• Time: 08/13 (Sun.) To be confirmed
• Location: To be confirmed