Four local law professors and attorneys announced the establishment of the Taiwan Innocence Project Dec. 17, intended to root out miscarriages of justice and help exonerate those wrongly convicted of serious crimes.
The U.S.-based Innocence Project inspired the creation of this organization in Taiwan, where wrongful convictions continue to take place, according to Wang Jaw-Perng, National Taiwan University law professor and one of the project initiators.
“Studies showed that an estimated 2.3 percent to 5 percent of serious crime convictions were wrongly executed, which means that up to 2,896 people are now in jail due to miscarriages of justice,” Wang said in a news conference announcing the kickoff of the initiative.
Drawing most media attention in recent months was the case of late Air Force private Chiang Kuo-ching. Chiang, executed in August 1997 on charges of raping and murdering a 5-year old girl, was acquitted in a posthumous trial Sept. 13.
“We hope to help prevent such cases from happening again,” the initiators said.
Another notable case involves a death sentence meted out to Cheng Hsin-tze on charges of murdering a police officer in Taichung in 2002. According to attorney Eric C.T. Yeh, another project initiator, police investigators failed to take photographs of the crime scene, note the positions of the guns involved, collect fingerprints from the guns or perform ballistic analysis. The conviction was based solely on a confession, allegedly extracted through torture, and the testimony of witnesses.
The project also aims to push for legislation and policymaking to prevent wrongful convictions, investigate the responsibility of civil servants and help innocent persons, after acquittal, reintegrate with society following their detention.
The initiative has been joined by over 30 people working in the fields of culture, medicine, religion and social advocacy, and has secured scientific assistance from its U.S. counterpart. (THN)