CONFLICT:The killing renewed calls to uphold the death penalty, with TV host Jacky Wu calling for collective punishment to include the suspect’s family
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 29, 2016
By: Wang Chun-chung and Huang Hsin-po / Staff reporters, with CNA
The decapitation of a four-year old girl in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) yesterday sparked
public outrage and rekindled the debate over capital punishment.
Internet users questioned the necessity of abolishing the death penalty and the possibility of rehabilitating serious offenders, saying the suspect, Wang Ching-yu (王景玉), who allegedly beheaded the girl in an apparently random attack, should be given a speedy trial and immediately executed.
Netizens said that people have to pay for their wrongdoings and “criminals like Wang” have no right to live.
“Legislators should revise the law to establish a mandatory death penalty for those convicted
of random killing to prevent random attacks and protect public safety. The public is advised to pay attention to their surroundings and strangers as such incidents pose a threat to people,” Coalition Against Abolishing the Death Penalty convener Chen Cheng-yu (陳正育) said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said she has proposed amendments to the Criminal Code to subject people who kill children under 12 to a mandatory death sentence or life sentence, and submitted the proposal for review by the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee. [FULL STORY]