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Vote for a legal
system that is just
By Lin Feng-jeng ªL®p¥¿
How do you put a price on a human life? You cannot. Although most people would
probably agree that, recent events could force us to revisit that supposition.
Fourteen years ago, air force Private Chiang Kuo-ching (¦¿°ê¼y) was found guilty of
murder by a court martial and executed. The government said the legal process
was followed to the letter of the law.
However, it was subsequently revealed that mistakes had been made and the same
military court determined Chiang was innocent of the crime for which he had been
executed.
Again, this was all done in strict adherence to the law the government says.
Last week, the court, again in line with the law, ruled that Chiang¡¦s mother,
Wang Tsai-lien (¤ý±m½¬), would receive more than NT$103.18 million (US$3.4 million)
in compensation for the loss of her beloved son.
That is how a price is put on a human life, though I doubt anyone would be
willing to sell his or her own life for that amount.
When interviewed about the proposed compensation, Wang said that no amount of
money could bring back her child. It was heartrending to hear. It is a lot of
money, but what does that mean?
The thing that strikes me most is that the killing of her child was done
according to the law, but so was changing the verdict to ¡§not guilty,¡¨ absolving
Chiang of any wrongdoing and leading to the proposed compensation.
The presiding judge said that no further action would be brought against the
officers responsible for this terrible error, including former minister of
national defense Chen Chao-min (³¯»F±Ó), who was chief of the Air Force Combat
Command at the time, because the statute of limitations for their possible
crimes had already expired. Once again this has all been done to the letter of
the law.
Is there something I am missing here or is this not meant to be understandable?
It seems that Taiwanese just have to grin and bear anything the government
decides to do, whether it is right or wrong, as long as the government claims
¡§it was all done to the letter of the law.¡¨
Taiwanese do not have any choice in the matter; we must simply accept what we
are given. The law now instructs that the public must foot the bill for this
blood money paid to ¡§correct¡¨ the injustice done to Chiang and his family.
The Ministry of National Defense now says that it is going to convene a panel of
experts to look into how it might seek compensation from the individuals
involved, which I am sure is completely in line with the law. However, will the
panel conclude ¡X as did the presiding judge ¡X that, according to the law, these
people cannot be prosecuted and that the ministry has no recourse in seeking
compensation from them? It is certainly possible.
The government¡¦s attitude seems to be that all it needs to do is hold up its
hands and say: ¡§Yes, we wrongfully executed Chiang, and that was unfortunate,
but we have been as sincere as we can about it and paid out an unprecedented
amount in compensation,¡¨ and that is that.
If the government fails to clarify who was responsible for this miscarriage of
justice, Chiang¡¦s life and death will have been in vain. Such clarification
would include addressing the role of the Taipei Prosecutors¡¦ Office, which
initially ruled that Chen and another eight individuals could not be prosecuted
because the statue of limitations had expired.
In the middle of July, the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors¡¦ Office overruled this
decision, saying that the inquiry into whether these individuals were complicit
in the wrongful taking of a life and guilty of an abuse of power should
continue, to ascertain whether they were guilty of complicity in an individual¡¦s
torture, detention and death.
For three months, nothing further has been heard from the Taipei Prosecutors¡¦
Office. What has it been doing all this time? And who is going to pay the
compensation? If it is split between all Taiwanese that would come to about NT$5
each. So that is fine, isn¡¦t it? Everyone will just have to eat one less
dumpling to cover the cost.
Even more important is the need to reform the system. We have to ask whether the
military appeals system can be maintained in its current form, whether there is
room for reform or it should be abolished in its present incarnation.
There is a need for reform in the criminal justice system to put an end to the
illegal obtaining of confessions from suspects, often through the use of
torture.
Would it really be so difficult to enforce a rule that stipulated a lawyer must
be present during the interrogation of a suspect? Since it costs the country
more than NT$100 million for every person wrongfully executed, why not use that
money to make sure having a lawyer present becomes standard practice, so we can
avoid a repeat of this unfortunate incident?
However, unlike the fatal error committed by the government in its handling of
this case, which it has to be said was completely consistent with its legal
obligations, the government does not have any legal responsibility to pursue
such reforms.
Strictly speaking, of course, a government does not really have any legal
obligation to reform and attempts to do so frequently run up against the lazy
insistence that ¡§everything is being done according to the law.¡¨
It is well within the rights of those in power to act according to the law, do
nothing about the situation and leave people to fend for themselves. However,
with elections approaching, Taiwanese get the chance to use their vote,
according to the law of course, to support those candidates who refuse to hide
behind the excuse that things are being done according to the law.
This is the best way the nation could pay its respects to Chiang¡¦s memory.
Lin Feng-jeng is a lawyer and executive director of the Judicial Reform
Foundation.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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