Court Observation Recruitment | The Qiu Song-cheng Case: A Knife-Wielding Homicide Case Without a Knife | Investigation Hearing for the Fourth Remand of the Motion for Retrial
Last edited: 2026-08-28
In 2015, the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch Court (hereinafter the Kaohsiung Branch Court) found that Qiu Song-cheng had been holding a “fruit knife concealed in advance” and had “forcefully stabbed Mr. Zheng in the back as he fled with his back turned to Qiu Song-cheng, penetrating deep into the lung within the chest cavity,” causing Mr. Zheng's death. Qiu Song-cheng was sentenced to life imprisonment and deprivation of citizen's rights for life, and the judgment became final.
However, the court's findings of fact are subject to numerous doubts. The Judicial Reform Foundation commissioned experts to examine surveillance footage from the scene, reconstruct the incident, and conduct an additional bloodstain-pattern analysis. Nevertheless, the Kaohsiung Branch Court repeatedly dismissed Qiu Song-cheng's petitions for a retrial. To date, Qiu Song-cheng has been wrongfully imprisoned for ten years.
In September 2025, the Supreme Court vacated for the fourth time a ruling by the Kaohsiung Branch Court dismissing Qiu Song-cheng's petition for a retrial. The Supreme Court identified deficiencies in the lower court's fact-finding and investigation: it had not only disregarded the experts' opinions, but also failed to explain adequately why it found those opinions unpersuasive.
Following the latest remand to the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch Court, four investigative hearings have been held. Expert witness Professor Li Jun-yi and police officer Lan Jin-long were summoned separately for examination. At the previous hearing, Qiu Song-cheng was also summoned to demonstrate how he would hold a fruit knife, in an effort to reconstruct and clarify the circumstances at the crime scene as fully as possible.
At 10:00 a.m. on July 24, the Qiu Song-cheng case will proceed to the fifth hearing in the retrial investigation. We invite everyone concerned about the case to attend and show their support, and to join us in calling for a retrial.
Court Observation Schedule
Time
Friday, July 24, 2026, at 9:50 a.m.
Location
Criminal Courtroom 4, Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch Court (No. 586, Mingcheng 3rd Rd., Gushan Dist., Kaohsiung City)
References
The Qiu Song-cheng case
Contact
Legal Specialist Zhang Jia-qi
Phone: 04-2329-2372 ext. 14
Email: jc@jrf.org.tw
This article is an AI-generated translation of the original Chinese text. In the event of any discrepancy, the Chinese version shall prevail.