Focus Taiwan
Date: 08/21/2020
By: Hsiao Po-wen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Aug. 21 (CNA) The High Court came under public pressure Friday after overturning the guilty verdict of a man accused of killing and decapitating his mother, but said it did so because the defendant did not know what he was doing at the time.

The shocking case occurred on Oct. 17, 2018, when a 34-year-old man with the surname Liang hacked his 66-year-old mother to death with a machete in their home in Taoyuan. The mother was later found to have a total of 37 knife wounds on her head, arms, chest and abdomen.

The killing ended with the man, who has a history of drug abuse, chopping off the head of his mother and throwing it to the ground from the 12th floor of the building, according to prosecutors and police.

Liang was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Taoyuan District Court in September 2019 even though he was found to have an acute mental disorder from being poisoned by amphetamines that reduced his cognitive abilities.    [FULL  STORY]