Man on death row freed in karaoke killing retrial
Print Edition
A TAIWAN man who spent more than a decade on death row walked free yesterday after being acquitted of murder in a retrial.
Cheng Hsing-tse was condemned to death in 2002 after he was found guilty of shooting a police officer during a gun battle in a karaoke parlor.
The death penalty was confirmed in 2006, when he had exhausted the appeal process.
But he was granted a retrial last year and released on bail when new evidence cast doubt on his conviction, suggesting he may have been tortured into admitting the crime.
The high court in central Taichung yesterday overturned the original guilty verdict, saying Cheng’s confession may have been forced and that evidence pointed to another culprit firing the fatal shots.
“I’ve waited for this acquittal for 15 years,” Cheng told reporters outside the court after the verdict was announced.
Cheng was a follower of gangster Luo Wu-hsiung and was caught up in the gun battle after Luo fired a pistol at the ceiling and at bottles in a karaoke room in protest at the parlor’s service.
Police stormed the venue and shots were fired by both sides, killing Luo and an officer named Su Hsien-pi.
Earlier verdicts had determined that Cheng had fired the bullets that killed Su.
But judges yesterday said that, after considering evidence of the firing positions, it could not be ruled out that Luo was the killer.
The high court said in a statement that Cheng’s face had shown “obvious new bruising” during interrogations, “suggesting his confession wasn’t voluntary.”
Taiwan resumed capital punishments in 2010 after a five-year hiatus. Executions are reserved for serious crimes including aggravated murder.
The last execution was in May last year of Cheng Chieh, who killed four people in a stabbing spree on a subway in 2014.
There are currently 43 convicts on death row in Taiwan, according to campaign group Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty.
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