FEATURED POST

Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

Published
Image
Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

Taiwan Supreme Court upholds death for man convicted of double murder and rape

Published
Taipei
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the death sentence for Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted of the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, saying the “enormity of his crimes” preclude any chances of rehabilitation.

Yesterday’s ruling was the first time this year that the Supreme Court upheld a sentence for capital punishment, as judges in the lower courts are increasingly reluctant to hand out the death penalty.

Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted of the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and of killing her mother, after breaking into their house on Oct. 1, 2013.

Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide.

The Supreme Court upheld Huang’s death sentence for killing his ex-girlfriend, in addition to the life imprisonment sentence without the possibility of parole that he received for killing her mother.

The nation’s top court said that while Huang’s murder of the mother was cold-blooded, it was an unpremeditated crime and did not meet the legal requirements for capital punishment.

However, after Huang murdered the mother, he waited in the residence for an hour before ambushing Wang to commit premeditated rape and murder, as evidenced by the mask and rope he brought with him, the court said.

“Huang planned meticulously for his strangling of the woman, surnamed Wang. Prior to killing Wang, Huang committed the additional crime of forcible sexual intercourse. The inhumanity and enormity of his crimes give the judges of the panel no option but to pronounce a death sentence,” it said.

The husband and father of the murder victims told reporters: “I hope they shoot him soon and stop wasting food.”

The Huang family had paid no damages to him or his three surviving daughters, the husband said, accusing the Huang family of liquidating their assets to avoid liabilities incurred by civil lawsuits.

Source: Taipei Times, Hsiang Cheng-chen and Jonathan Chin, July 4, 2017

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

Location: Taipei, Keelung City, Taiwan
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

Published
Image
Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.
Read more

Cruel and Unusual: Documentary explores epicenter of Texas’ prison system

Published
Image
Every few years, from childhood until my late teens, my granddad would take me along with him to the small Texas town where he grew up—Normangee, population 522—to visit old relatives and even older graves. The drive took us up I-45, beyond the Houston sprawl, past pine forests, and eventually through Huntsville, epicenter of the state prison system. One of the city’s seven prisons was just off the interstate, and as we passed by I’d stare at the guard towers and barbed wire before turning my attention across the street to the Texas Prison Museum, which had its own mock guard towers in the parking lot. (“Prison” and “museum” were words that never seemed to go together.) Later, I learned that the museum’s central attraction was the wooden electric chair the state used for executions until 1964.
Read more

Saudi authorities agree to postpone execution of Kenyan national

Published
Image
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – Saudi Arabia has acceded to Kenya’s request to postpone the execution of Stephen Munyakho that was set for Wednesday to allow for further negotiations between all parties. According to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya will be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including religious leaders, to agree on the next urgent steps.
Read more

Missouri | Man Facing Execution Next Month Is Hospitalized With Heart Problem

Published
Image
David Hosier, who is weeks away from execution, is in a hospital after suffering what a Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman described as a “medical emergency." ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row prisoner who is due to be executed next month has been hospitalized because of a “medical emergency,” a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections said.
Read more

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

Published
Image
The following document is a written record of convicted killer Hamida Djandoubi's last moments before he was guillotined in a Marseilles prison on September 10, 1977. This written record -- dated September 9 -- was written by a judge appointed to witness the execution. Djandoubi's execution was the last execution carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. Then-President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had voiced his "loathing for the death penalty" before he was elected to office, flatly turned down Djandoubi's appeal for clemency and chose to let "Justice run its course", as he did on two previous instances ( Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977). Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was executed in Marseilles' Baumettes prison in September 1977. The following text was writ
Read more