How Death Penalty Is Announced and Practiced in Taiwan
Death penalty is the heaviest punishment our government can practice to us. The punishment itself intends to isolate the criminals from the society, which means to take away their lives. Yet, the process announcing and practicing death penalty must be careful and strict in case someone innocent is sentenced to death. Moreover, it is also important to allow those criminals die in a less painful way. To sum up, capital punishment is a complicated penalty, and the following would introduce its process.
To begin with, the prosecutor must convince the judge that the defendant had committed the most serious crime and is unlikely to be enlightened to announce a death penalty. It means that prosecutors must provide the evidence showing that the crime was the most serious and the criminal is unable to be educated that he/she must be isolated for good. Besides, the defendant must be proved being mentally healthy while perpetrating. For our law doesn’t allow execution against a patient. As a result, prosecutors must provide enough strong evidence plus the diagnosis proving that the defendant is mentally and physically healthy while committing murder because the law doesn’t allow executing a patient.
The second step is making sure the announcement will not be changed. After the first judgment announced, defendant’s lawyers are very likely to appeal against the judgment. In most cases, the judgments would be overthrown, and the prosecutor would have no choice but lodge an appeal against the defendant’s appeal.As a result, it usually takes years until the conviction is affirmed by the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, there is extraordinary appeal, which means the defendants have the chance to make the trial last even longer. For instance, Huang Chung-Chi, who kidnapped and killed a business man, was sentenced to death in 2000. However, he still appealed in 2017, which means it had taken nearly two decades from when Huang was arrested to now.
The third step is to get the permission that authorized the execution. This step will not be taken until the judgment is affirmed. The execution will be practiced as long as the minister of law signs up the death warrant. This is also a difficult job for the minister because it is his/her that allowed our country to kill a citizen. Every minister has different aspect to the death penalty. Some of them are even against the punishment. Therefore, this part can also take a while.The punishment itself will remain nothing more than a title until the warrant is signed. After the death warrant is signed up, the death criminal will be informed and execution will occur at night. The executor will prepare abundant meal for the criminal. Alcohol and cigarette are also available for them. After the last supper, death row will be sent to the execution ground. To allow an death without pain, anesthetic will be used on criminals and they will be shot at heart, so they will not suffer too much. After the execution, their bodies will be checked thoroughly, in case they are still alive. If a criminal is affirmed dead, his/her body will be returned to the family after paying for their sins.
Death penalty is required of complicated processes, and not to mention those appeals against the judgments.First, the prosecutors must convince the judge to announce a death penalty. Then they have to deal with the later appeals. Finally, the penalty will need the minister of law’s permission to practice the execution. Otherwise, it would be nothing more than a title.Even after the death warrant has passed, there are steps to take to relieve the death rows. Those details also prove that how much we consider about human rights. If people commit heavy crime, the penalty is inevitable to the society. However, the reason that people commit crimes that deserve capital punishment is what we are supposed to figure out. After all, death penalty may relieve us, but it will never solve the problems once and for all.