TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Human rights groups, lawyers, and abolitionists said the death penalty does not make Taiwan safer after the Constitutional Court ruled to keep it in place on Friday (Sept. 20).
The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty held a press conference with seven other groups who oppose the death penalty at Taipei's Jinan Presbyterian Church after the ruling. All of the groups expressed regret at the court's decision.
The alliance’s director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) said lawmakers use the death penalty to “respond to the victims' pain and society’s demands for public safety” while they fail to develop policies to keep people safe. “The death penalty should not be the default option in nations such as Taiwan, which has gone through authoritarianism and democratization,” she said.
Lin noted the court ruled the death penalty should be limited to the most severe criminal cases of murder with direct intent. However, she said some of Taiwan’s death row inmates do not meet this criteria.

The court also said in its ruling that capital punishment fully complies with Taiwan’s Constitution and the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Lin said the alliance calls on the chief prosecutor to file appeals for those on death row to ensure their sentences comply with those two documents.
Judicial Reform Foundation Lawyer Lin Yung-sung (林永頌) said the death penalty is still legal in Taiwan partly because of public misconceptions about its effect. Lin said the death penalty does not make people safer, and more effort needs to be put into building understanding around the issue.
The foundation’s Lin said the government should explore the causes of serious crime and strengthen social safety nets to prevent tragedies. He suggested the government establish a database of serious crimes and publish annual reports on them.
This should be done while emphasizing a zero-tolerance policy for criminal acts, Lin said. “The state should no longer use guns to alleviate public anxiety about serious crimes,” he said, referring to Taiwan’s method of using firing squads to execute prisoners.

Recent public opinion polls have shown that up to 80% of people support the death penalty in Taiwan. Asked if she thought it would be undemocratic for the court to rule against this high level of public support, Director Lin said no.
“Taking this line of thinking, we wouldn’t need to establish a legislature or a Constitutional Court, we would just need a polling company to survey everyone,” she said. “The human rights issue of the death penalty is more complicated than that, and it needs policy guidance.”
Lin said many changes designed to improve human rights were unpopular with the public at first. She added that using opinion polls to suggest such a change would be undemocratic as it is closer to populism than democracy.
In addition to the Judicial Reform Foundation and The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, the press conference was attended by Amnesty International Taiwan, Covenants Watch, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Taiwan Criminal Defense Attorney Association, the Taiwan Innocence Project, and the Humanistic Education Foundation.
Since the Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2016, Taiwan has carried out two executions. The last execution took place in 2020.