PRESS RELEASE: The Death Penalty Project condemns Taiwan’s unlawful execution of Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱)

Yesterday evening, at 10:02pm in Taiwan, Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱) was executed summarily and unlawfully. He and his legal team were given less than four hours’ notice of his execution, which took place while an appeal was still pending – an indefensible disregard for the right to life and the due process of law enshrined in the Taiwanese Constitution.

Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) signed the execution warrant earlier on the same day, 16 January. Mr Huang’s lawyers attempted to file an extraordinary appeal to halt the execution, raising grave concerns about the arbitrary and unlawful nature of the execution warrant. Shortly after, and without the opportunity for a family visit, Mr Huang was executed. He was made to lie face down and shot through the back of the heart at the Taipei Detention Centre.

The Ministry of Justice did not give a statement at the time of Mr Huang’s execution.

It had been nearly five years since Taiwan’s last execution in April 2020. This shocking setback marks the first execution carried out under President Lai Ching-te’s administration. Last year had seen positive steps towards restricting the use of capital punishment with the Constitutional Court ruling in September 2024 that the use of the death penalty was inconsistent with due process rights under the Constitution and international law.

While upholding Taiwan’s use of capital punishment, the judgment limited the death penalty to a narrow category of very serious cases and introduced procedural safeguards, including a requirement for the unanimity of judges at trial and at appeal. The Court invited the authorities to review the cases of all 37 people then under sentence of death and to file extraordinary appeals in cases where the safeguards and protections had not been provided.

At the time of Mr Huang’s execution, efforts were still being made by his legal team and civil society to determine whether judges had reached unanimous decisions in his case at trial and on appeal. He did not have a pre-trial social investigation, indicating a failure to comply with the procedural standards set out by the Court.

Mr Huang’s sudden execution was in violation of constitutional and international minimum safeguards on capital punishment and while an appeal to halt the execution was pending before the courts. To carry out a death sentence in these circumstances shows a total disregard for the rule of law and is arbitrary and in violation of the right to life.

This unlawful execution comes just four months into the two-year window in which the Government must reform the Criminal Procedure Code to comply with the Constitutional Court’s judgment. We stand with our longstanding partners, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP), in condemning this flagrant abuse of human rights.

36 people are still on death row in Taiwan, their situation now more perilous than ever.

Saul Lehrfreund, Co-Executive Director of The Death Penalty Project said:

This is a devastating reminder of the cruel reality of the death penalty. No rational explanation has been provided as to why Huang Lin-kai was executed yesterday before any proper review of his case had taken place in accordance with the recent decision of the Constitutional Court and whilst an appeal was pending. The execution of Huang was arbitrary, unlawful and inhuman. The death penalty has no place in a democratic society which respects the rule of law, and we urge the Government of President Lai Ching-te to impose a moratorium of all further executions as the remaining 36 people on death row are all entitled as a matter of law to have their cases reviewed.

Notes to editors:

The Death Penalty in Taiwan

In 2006 Taiwan abolished the mandatory death penalty but retained the death penalty for crimes such as murder, treason, drug trafficking, and terrorism. In total, 58 crimes carried the death penalty in Taiwan at the time of the recent judgment of the constitutional court.

Constitutional Court Ruling (Judgment 113-Hsien-Pan-8): On 20 September 2024 the Constitutional Court ruled that Taiwan’s use of the death penalty was inconsistent with due process rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The court found that Taiwan’s international legal obligations require stringent procedural safeguards in capital trials. The court directed that the death penalty is reserved for the most serious cases of intentional homicide; that mentally ill defendants cannot be sentenced to death or executed; that defendants require effective legal representation at both trial and on appeal; and that capital sentences must be affirmed unanimously, by trial courts and courts of appeal. The court has also ordered a reform of the Criminal Procedure Code to be completed within two years, bringing into effect the reforms introduced by the Constitutional Court.

Method of Executions: Executions in Taiwan are carried out by shooting; prisoners are sedated, laid face-down, and then shot through the heart.

Death sentences: According to Amnesty International’s latest ‘Death Sentences and Executions’ Report, three death sentences were recorded in Taiwan in 2023.

Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP), established in 2003, is a coalition of Taiwanese abolitionist non-governmental organisations and research institutes. The alliance was formed to stress and promote the absolute value of life and human dignity as core to the protection and promotion of human rights.

The Death Penalty Project (DPP) is a legal action NGO, supported by and based at Simons Muirhead and Burton LLP, with special consultative status before the United Nations Economic and Social Council. For more than three decades, DPP has worked to protect the rights of those facing the death penalty.

For interview requests, quotes or more information, please contact DPP’s team: [email protected] and [email protected]