Taiwan carries out 1st execution in 2 years amid anti-death penalty pleas

Taiwan executed a death-row inmate on Friday, the 1st execution carried out under President Tsai Ing-wen's government and despite ongoing calls from rights groups to abolish the death penalty.

Lee Hung-chi was executed at a jail in southern Kaohsiung city Friday afternoon by firing squad, according to the justice ministry, for killing his ex-wife and 5-year-old daughter in 2014.

Lee stabbed his ex-wife to death outside the kindergarten their 2 daughters attended and then took 1 of the girls to his car, where he attempted to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Lee survived after they were rescued but the girl died 2 months later despite treatment.

"His actions were brutal and ruthless ... and inflicted irreparable harms to the victims' families," deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang told reporters, adding that the court had ruled there was no likelihood of Lee reforming.

Taiwan resumed capital punishment in 2010 after a 5-year hiatus, with the death penalty reserved for the most serious crimes such as aggravated murder and kidnapping.

Some politicians and rights groups have called for its abolition, but various opinion surveys show majority support for the death penalty.

RELATED: Taiwan: Human rights groups condemn political use of capital punishment

Chen said the government was gradually decreasing its use, but would not abolish it for now.

"Abolishing death sentence is an international trend and a long-term goal for the justice ministry ... but there is no consensus in our country," Chen said.

There are currently 42 prisoners on death row in Taiwan.

Lee's execution was the 1st since a former college student was put to death in May 2016 for killing 4 people in a random stabbing spree on a subway that shocked the generally peaceful island.

In 2012 the murder of a young boy in a playground reignited the debate over the death penalty after the suspect reportedly said he was anticipating free board and lodging in jail and would get a life sentence at most even if he were to kill 2 or 3 people.

Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net, August 31, 2018

Taiwan executes convict on president's birthday

Murderer was 1st convict to be executed since president took office in May 2016

A man who stabbed his former wife to death outside a school and caused the death of a 6-year-old daughter became the 1st death row convict to be executed since President Tsai Ing-wen came to office in May 2016.

Even though Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party includes several prominent opponents of capital punishment, the practice still receives overwhelming support from the public according to opinion polls.

Lee Hung-chi, 39, was shot Friday afternoon, the Ministry of Justice said. It added he formed a serious threat to law and order and showed no possibility of remorse.

Before the murder, he had already spent 11 months in prison for violating a restraining order and trying to kill both his daughters and commit suicide.

In April 2014, he first stabbed his ex-wife to death and then abducted 1 of their 2 daughters from the school.

Having driven to a mountainous area, he drugged the girl and burned charcoal inside the car in order to cause both of their deaths, according to the Apple Daily. He survived, but the girl died 2 months later, the Central News Agency reported.

The Kaohsiung District Court sentenced him to life in prison, a combination of a 15-year jail term for killing his wife and life for the death of their daughter.

However, the Taiwan High Court changed the sentences to life for the death of his ex-wife and capital punishment for the death of the girl. In 2016, the Supreme Court confirmed the verdict, making it the 1st death sentence issued since Tsai was sworn in as president.

The Ministry of Justice said the order for Lee's execution was signed on Thursday, and rejected reporters' questions about a link with the fact that the president was marking her 62nd birthday Friday.

Taiwan's most recent execution until now occurred just days before Tsai took over, when student Cheng Chieh was shot for killing 4 people on a Taipei Mass Rapid Transit train.

With Lee's death, there were reportedly still 42 convicts on death row in Taiwan.

Source: Taiwan News, August 31, 2018

⚑ | 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!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Saudi Arabia executes two Bangladeshis over 'immoral act' inside mosque

Saudi Arabia has carried out the death penalty on two Bangladeshi nationals in Mecca. The country's Interior Ministry announced this in a statement on Wednesday. According to the report, they were sentenced over allegations of involvement in immoral acts inside a mosque in Mecca. The information was reported by Ajel News, citing the Saudi Interior Ministry's statement. The two Bangladeshis executed were a man and a woman, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Sithi Akhter. The “immoral acts” referred to illicit heterosexual intercourse, not homosexual activity.

Florida | Former firefighter, police officer sentenced to death in Fort Pierce killing

Otto Lenke, a Sebastian resident and former Indian River County firefighter/paramedic, as well as a former Melbourne police officer, was convicted in May 2026 of first-degree murder with a firearm and first-degree arson for the February 2021 killing of Richard Benson, owner of Fast Frank’s Cycle Concepts in Fort Pierce. SEBASTIAN—A Nineteen Judicial Circuit judge on Tuesday sentenced former Indian River County firefighter and Melbourne police officer Otto Lenke of Sebastian to death for the 2021 killing of a Fort Pierce motorcycle shop owner.

Florida | William Reaves set to be executed on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m.

With his execution date looming, convicted killer William Reaves will soon be moved from Raiford's Union Correctional Institution to a death watch cell in nearby Florida State Prison, a maximum-security complex also known as "The Rock." Reaves, 77, a former Gifford resident in Indian River County who’s been on death row for 38 years, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. His execution will fulfill a sentence of death imposed for the 1986 fatal shooting of Indian River County Sheriff’s Cpl. Richard “Raz” Raczkoski outside a Zippy Mart store on State Road 60 west of Vero Beach.

Christa Pike's Survival Wasn't a Miracle. That's What Should Scare Us.

What happened in Tennessee's execution chamber is one of the most common failures in medicine Christa Pike is awake. A week after Tennessee strapped her to a gurney and gave her two doses of pentobarbital , she is off the ventilator and speaking from a hospital bed, still shackled to it. Her lawyers call her recovery " medically unprecedented. " Legal scholars say she is the first person in American history to survive a lethal injection after the drug was actually given. I understand the impulse to make such claims. I consulted for Pike's legal team, but I have also spent three decades in operating rooms and intensive care units (ICUs), and I want to resist the word "unprecedented" and the word "miracle" that hovers just behind it.

Saudi Arabia executes woman, 'terrorists', 'indecent' couple, and juvenile offenders

Saudi Arabia carried out a series of executions in mid-October, including that of a woman convicted of killing her mother and attempting to kill her sister, alongside five men in the Eastern Province. Official statements described the five as terrorists; human rights groups described them as political prisoners sentenced under discretionary (ta’zir) penalties, one of whom was a child at the time of the alleged acts. The cases illustrate the kingdom’s continued use of the death penalty under Sharia, its stated commitment to public order and justice, and criticism from human rights organizations over the scope of capital punishment.

Florida executes James Robertson

STARKE, Fla. — A Florida prisoner who said he killed his cellmate specifically to get on death row was executed Tuesday, nearly 18 years after the attack. James Robertson, 63, declined to offer any last words before receiving a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later. It was a stark contrast to the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee two weeks ago, where she was rushed to the hospital after surviving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

Florida Set to Execute Man Who Said He Killed to Reach Death Row, Challenging Misconception that Death Penalty Deters Crime

Florida is scheduled to execute James Robertson at noon on Tuesday, October 13, at Florida State Prison. His execution remains scheduled despite the withdrawal of William Lee Thompson’s death warrant, which had called for a 2nd execution that evening. If completed, this will be Florida’s 17th execution of 2026. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) and partners will be holding a series of vigils and demonstrations across the state.

Christa Pike: 4 Major Questions As She Returns to Death Row

As Christa Pike returns to death row after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her, several questions remain about her case and what comes next. Pike, 50, was discharged from hospital and moved back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years, her attorneys said on Saturday. She was hospitalized after surviving 2 doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital as Tennessee attempted to execute her on September 30. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, her classmate at a Job Corps training program in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 18 at the time.

Tennessee | Christa Pike’s lawyer says she has not regained consciousness since her failed execution

Christa Pike has remained unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital in the four days since her failed execution in Tennessee, and her prognosis might not be known for days more, one of her lawyers said Sunday. Little has been released about Pike’s condition since Wednesday night’s execution attempt. She has since remained hospitalized under guard as doctors try to get the massive dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital out of her system. When asked whether she ever regained consciousness after the execution attempt, Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s lawyer, said on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “Not that I am aware of.”

Saudi Arabia executes five on terrorism charges

DUBAI — Saudi Arabia executed five people Saturday on terrorism charges, the ministry of interior said, bringing the total number of death sentences carried out this year to 188, according to an AFP tally based on official statements. The five Saudi nationals were convicted of “joining a foreign terrorist organization," opening fire on security forces and “providing support” for “terrorist operations inside the kingdom." Their executions were carried out in the Eastern Province, home to most of Saudi Arabia’s Shia Muslim minority, which has long complained of marginalization in the Sunni-majority country.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog