White Rose group to back death penalty on April 10

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Following the beheading of a 4-year-old girl, the White Rose Social Care Association said Tuesday it planned an event in support of the death penalty in front of the Presidential Office Building on April 10.
The brutal death of the toddler at the hands of a random attacker in Taipei City Monday has triggered a revival of the debate surrounding the existence of capital punishment in Taiwan.
The group said it hoped 10,000 people could plan to attend the April 10 rally. If each one of them donated NT$50 (US$1.5), the group said it would be able to afford to set up a stage on Ketagalan Boulevard, the scene of frequent mass protests and social events.
The White Rose movement had initially announced it would stage the rally on Saturday April 9, but it later found out another group had already applied to use the boulevard that day, forcing it to move its event to the Sunday.
The group said the random killing of a child in the street on broad daylight showed that capital punishment was still necessary.
Other supporters of the death penalty have argued that without executions, crime would rise since there would no longer be a serious deterrent to murder.
Most public opinion polls show overwhelming support for capital punishment, but some activists, including several lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and the New Power Party, have argued that Taiwan should follow the example of European countries and abolish the death penalty. They say only improvements in social care and treatment of the mentally ill will prevent incidents such as the girl’s murder from happening again.
The Legislative Yuan is planning to discuss a proposal Thursday which could make the death penalty for murderers of children under 12 mandatory. In the case of mental illness, the perpetrator would have to serve a life sentence.
The White Rose organization was founded in 2010 as a protest against low punishments issued by courts against child molesters.