[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 12


TAIWAN:

Group calls for saving innocent inmates


The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty is calling on the public to
join its "Life Watch" project to help save the lives of prisoners
mistakenly convicted and sentenced to death by courts.

Alliance members stressed that private individuals are welcome to take
part in the "Life Watch" project and to serve as long-term observers to
prevent the judicial system from taking the lives of innocent people.

Citing US research, alliance members said that the courts might have
arrived at an incorrect verdict in some 7 percent of cases involving the
death penalty. A similar group, dubbed the "Innocence Project," is active
in the US, they said.

According to a 1994 publication of the Cabinet-level Research, Development
and Evaluation Commission (RDEC), 482 Taiwanese prisoners were executed
during the 1955-1992 period. Alliance members noted that according to the
statistics provided by the "Innocence Project," some 34 persons might have
been wrongly put to death.

The RDEC publication shows that most of the 482 executed persons were
drawn from the lower-ranks of society, being unemployed or low-income
workers, poorly educated, or young, first-time offenders.

The Life Watch project is co-sponsored by the Taiwan Association for Human
Rights, the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Chang Fo-chuan Center for the
Study of Human Rights, Fujen University John Paul II Peace Institute and
the Taipei Bar Association, alliance members added.

(source: Taipei Times)