After the Verdict: Standing Guard on the Road Home for a Wrongfully Convicted Person—An Interview with Chiu Sung-cheng's Parents

When the interview team arrived in Tsoying heading south, Mr. Chiu had already been waiting for us at the High Speed Rail station for quite some time. On the way to the Chiu family home, Mr. Chiu chatted with the JRF legal staff about Chiu Sung-cheng's case. Facing the investigative hearing that afternoon, Mr. Chiu said with hopeful anticipation, "It feels very promising today. Let's see if he can be released on the spot!" When the JRF legal staff explained the meaning of an investigative hearing and its related procedures, Mr. Chiu smiled wryly and said, "Isn't that how they always do it in the movies!"

Repeatedly Examining Surveillance Footage in the Fight for Exoneration

Mr. Chiu's wry smile seemed to use humor to cover up the awkwardness of a misunderstanding, but it still could not conceal the helplessness seeping through. During the interview, Mr. Chiu and Mrs. Chiu repeatedly discussed with us how the afternoon's investigative hearing would examine surveillance footage, which revealed the fact that past investigations had mistakenly identified Chiu Sung-cheng as the killer. Mr. Chiu said that after the incident occurred, to clarify whether his son had committed the crime, he repeatedly went back and forth, checking the surveillance video second by second. During that day's court session, expert witness Police Officer Lan Chin-lung used his professional comparative methods to point out that the real killer was someone else entirely.

Faced with the court's controversial verdict, Mr. Chiu and Mrs. Chiu did not automatically believe in Chiu Sung-cheng's innocence from the very beginning. Recalling the time of the incident, because they were unclear about the case details, Mr. Chiu and Mrs. Chiu chose to trust the judiciary: "Since our child did something wrong, we will admit it, because we didn't know anything." "You bear the consequences of your own actions, so there was nothing much... we just let the lawyers handle it." But Mrs. Chiu has not forgotten what Chiu Sung-cheng said to her at the police station: "Mom, I didn't kill anyone," and the surveillance footage Chiu Sung-cheng continuously brought up to them thereafter.

▲ Thumbnail of frame-by-frame image analysis by experts.

It was not until after the second-instance trial concluded that Mr. Chiu and Mrs. Chiu officially obtained the surveillance disc data. Mr. Chiu began reviewing, comparing, and organizing the data day and night, and upon the suggestion of the lawyer at the time, he approached then-JRF Director Hsiao I-min to file a petition.

JRF's intervention went straight to the core of the court's evidentiary examination issues. Director Hsiao I-min gathered pro bono lawyers and volunteers from various fields to study the case, and commissioned a crime scene reconstruction expert to conduct an appraisal. They went back to the crime scene to re-measure the crucial act identified by the court—wherein Chiu Sung-cheng allegedly stabbed Cheng XX—and discovered that given the distance between the two, Chiu Sung-cheng simply could not have reached Cheng XX (Doubts in the Chiu Sung-cheng Case).

On the day of the interview, Mr. Chiu repeatedly recounted this discovery, and his heartache for his child was vividly apparent.

A Child Wronged, Parents Standing Guard Together

When we asked Mr. Chiu and Mrs. Chiu about their state of mind and circumstances over the past few years, they did not talk much about their own pressure and hardship; all we saw was their concern for their child's suffering. Mr. Chiu and Mrs. Chiu said they visit Chiu Sung-cheng once a week like clockwork, bringing home-cooked food and daily necessities, comforting and guiding Chiu Sung-cheng, stabilizing his state of mind when the legal proceedings stalled, and running around on the outside to stand by him in coordination with the lawyers:

 

 

 

 

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Because sometimes when the lawsuit cannot make any further progress, he must feel extremely uncomfortable inside, and as his own parents we could tell just by looking... for a period of time he really wanted to give up on life.

I told him, you must remember you have a mom and dad, and you still have a son. If you think about ending it there, what will happen to us outside? Your son is so well-behaved and obedient, and he does quite well in his studies. I said you need to stay strong over there, we will fight for you on the outside, we will do our best to help you, and see how we can resolve this; whatever we can help with, we will do our best. I told him to let go of his worries, whatever you need from us, we will do our best to help. Things will definitely pass as long as you are alive; as long as you have your life, anything can be talked about.

During that period, he would be a bit more open-minded, but sometimes he would think... your child has already been raised for you, you must stay strong, don't think about anything else, just live your life well, right? There's nothing else we can do for you, what we can help with is finding lawyers and things like that, whatever he says we will cooperate as much as possible, figuring out how to... And I told him the lawyers all said there is hope, it just takes a long time, right? And he is also working very hard on the inside; he reads about his own case, and his cellmates also tell him how things work, giving him some perspective, so he feels a bit better.

Along the road of wrongful conviction, what Mr. Chiu and Mrs. Chiu steadfastly hold onto is not only the possibility of judicial exoneration, but also the spark of life that keeps their child going.

Along the Path of Wrongful Conviction, Fighting for Exoneration While Fighting to Live

▲ Mrs. Chiu volunteering as a school crossing guard on weekdays. (Photography / Li Chao-yen)

While running around fighting for Chiu Sung-cheng's exoneration, Mr. and Mrs. Chiu also strived to fill the void in the family life that originally belonged to him. Recalling the time of the incident, Chiu Sung-cheng was married with a three-year-old son; the sudden judicial detention forced Chiu Sung-cheng to be abruptly pulled away from his roles as a husband and a father.

Mrs. Chiu told Chiu Sung-cheng's wife to return to her original family and divorce Chiu Sung-cheng, while Mrs. Chiu shouldered the responsibility of caring for the child. Mrs. Chiu described her grandson as very well-behaved, and very much like Chiu Sung-cheng—tall and big, and good at playing ball.

During the upbringing of Chiu Sung-cheng and his older brother, because of their physiques and interests, they were invited by teachers in elementary school to join the handball team, playing all the way through junior high school. Their performance was widely recognized, and they even won a national championship. Therefore, when entering high school, they were sought after and recruited by the school. Chiu Sung-cheng's son likewise joined a sports team in elementary school, though his passion was basketball. Mrs. Chiu said that throughout her grandson's upbringing, she accompanied him to games all over Taiwan—from Taipei, Hualien, and Taitung, to the outlying islands—fighting battles everywhere, and she even shared an amusing anecdote about getting lost in a taxi in Taipei.

Caring for her grandson has become an important daily routine for Mrs. Chiu in her support for Chiu Sung-cheng. Faced with his father's absence, Mrs. Chiu said her grandson is mature for his age. Having gone to prison visits with them since he was young, he knows what happened to his father. While the grandson usually does not ask many questions, and Mr. and Mrs. Chiu do not say much either, the unspoken regret in the child's heart is still witnessed by Mr. and Mrs. Chiu. Mrs. Chiu said, "I can't talk to him about single-parent issues; he will cry."

Playing ball is perhaps Chiu Sung-cheng's son's way of self-adjustment. There is a park behind the Chiu family home, and during his breaks, Chiu Sung-cheng's son would take a ball and go out by himself, not giving Mr. and Mrs. Chiu much to worry about in his daily life. Mrs. Chiu told Chiu Sung-cheng, "You are so damn lucky, your son is so well-behaved, I don't have to worry about anything, he does everything himself. I told you that while you're inside, just treat it as a spiritual practice, what else can we do? Whatever I can help with, I will do my best."

Twelve years of life under a wrongful conviction changed Chiu Sung-cheng's destiny and reshaped the trajectory of the Chiu family's lives. Speaking of Chiu Sung-cheng, Mr. and Mrs. Chiu inevitably feel a pang of sorrow, but what they reveal even more is their effort and adaptation in striving for a life after the verdict. Before lunch, Mrs. Chiu said she had to rush off to do volunteer crossing guard work at the elementary school, a habit she established when her grandson was attending elementary school. Facing a wrongful conviction, continuing to move forward in daily life is the resilience with which Mr. and Mrs. Chiu guard the road home for Chiu Sung-cheng.

Future: Hoping for an Early Reunion

▲ Chiu Sung-cheng's parents attend the scene to show support at every court hearing. (Photography / Li Chao-yen)

Today, Mr. Chiu is 71 years old and Mrs. Chiu is 68. They pray for exoneration, looking forward to an early reunion: "We hope the judge can let him out a little earlier to reunite with his son; this is something we should ask of the judge and the prosecutor." "Let's see if he can get parole, because his chances look quite good today."

Stepping out of the courtroom that afternoon, although Chiu Sung-cheng was not released on the spot like in a television drama as they had hoped, the expert opinions expressed by the witness in court regarding the surveillance footage gave Mr. and Mrs. Chiu confidence that a reunion is not far off. On the morning of March 13, the fourth retrial-remand of the Chiu Sung-cheng case will continue its unfinished investigative hearing, further clarifying in court the distance between the two where the fatal stabbing could not have taken place, as pointed out by police officer Lan Chin-lung. And we will continue to advocate for his innocence.

▲ JRF calls upon the public to observe court proceedings at every retrial investigative hearing. During the retrial investigative hearing for the Chiu Sung-cheng case on August 19, 2021, a lawyer explains the court proceedings to everyone outside the courtroom.