"In January 2025, the execution of inmate Huang Lin-kai reignited Taiwan's death penalty debate, with activists saying authorities acted in disregard of the law. The execution, the island's first in five years, came just months after Taiwan's Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling narrowing the scope of capital punishment and requiring stricter safeguards for its application. At the time, some observers thought the ruling meant Taiwan was edging toward "de facto abolition" of the death penalty."
"According to the Death Penalty Project, a UK-based NGO providing legal assistance to those on death row, the execution took place while an appeal was still pending. The NGO said Huang was executed "summarily and unlawfully. He and his legal team were given less than four hours' notice of his execution." This amounted to an "indefensible disregard for the right to life and the due process of law enshrined in the Taiwanese Constitution," the NGO wrote in a press release."
January 2025 execution of Huang Lin-kai, the first in five years, followed a September 2024 Constitutional Court ruling limiting the death penalty to "most serious cases of intentional homicide" and requiring unanimous agreement by trial and appeal courts. Huang was convicted of a 2013 double murder. The Death Penalty Project said the execution occurred while an appeal was pending and that Huang and his legal team received less than four hours' notice, calling the action "summarily and unlawfully" and an "indefensible disregard" for the right to life and due process. Executions in Taiwan are carried out by shooting, with prisoners sedated and shot through the heart. Justice Minister Cheng Ming-chien said Huang's case was the only one fully reviewed among those on death row.
Read at www.dw.com
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