When Hsin-Fu Comes Knocking-Press Conference Marking Ten Years Since Wang Hsin-Fu's Death Sentence Became Final and the Launch of the Rescue Team

Today, July 27, 2021, marks ten years since Wang Hsin-Fu's death sentence became final. He has spent more than 5,400 days in detention. Press-conference moderator Lin Hsin-I, Executive Director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP), announced that nine organizations were jointly establishing the "Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Team." The pro bono defense team also outlined the key points of an opinion submitted to the Supreme Prosecutors Office requesting review of this controversial final death-penalty case. The press conference screened a preview of the 2020 film Judging Wang Hsin-Fu in the hope of helping the public understand the alleged miscarriage of justice.

Basic Facts of the Wang Hsin-Fu Case

The Wang Hsin-Fu case arose from a 1990 shooting at a karaoke venue. A young man, Chen Jung-Chieh, opened fire and killed two police officers; the courts concluded that Wang Hsin-Fu had ordered the shooting. Despite the weakness of the evidence, Wang's death sentence became final in 2011.

The shooter, Chen Jung-Chieh, implicated Wang Hsin-Fu in a brief statement: "He held my elbow, pointed, and said loudly, 'Take care of those two.'" Chen was later sentenced to death and executed, leaving Wang no opportunity to confront or cross-examine him. Chen's superior, Li ○-Lin, was never summoned to testify and later disappeared from view. The case resembles earlier wrongful death-penalty cases such as Su Chien-Ho et al. and Hsu Tzu-Chiang, in which critical witnesses died and the evidence was weak. Relevant witnesses were not brought to court for confrontation and cross-examination; physical evidence such as audio recordings inexplicably disappeared; interrogation records were internally inconsistent; and the case relied heavily on statements rather than scientific evidence. Despite incomplete fact-finding, questionable statement evidence, and the lack of scientific corroboration, the courts sentenced Wang Hsin-Fu to death. The Supreme Court dismissed his appeal on July 27, 2011. Applications for retrial, extraordinary appeal, and constitutional interpretation were later rejected. Wang, Taiwan's oldest death-row prisoner, remains at the Tainan Detention Center and faces the risk of execution.

TAEDP Chairperson Chang Chuan-Fen, co-director of Judging Wang Hsin-Fu and a long-time researcher of wrongful death-penalty cases, said the core problem is the weakness of the evidence. The shooter, Chen Jung-Chieh, killed two police officers, while the court found that Wang Hsin-Fu handed him the gun and ordered him to fire. Yet forensic testing found no Wang fingerprints on the weapon. The death sentence rested primarily on Chen's statement, which Chang identified as problematic in four respects: his account repeatedly changed; it conflicted with eyewitness testimony; it was never tested through confrontation and cross-examination; and the original interrogation recording disappeared, making voluntariness difficult to assess. She argued that the case follows a recurring pattern seen in the Su Chien-Ho, Hsu Tzu-Chiang, Hsieh Chih-Hung, Cheng Hsing-Tse, and Chiou Ho-shun cases: scientific evidence is discounted while weak statements, including co-defendant confessions, carry decisive weight.

Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Legal Team: Opinion Requesting Review of a Controversial Final Death-Penalty Case

The rescue legal team then briefed reporters on the current legal-relief effort. On May 18, the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, Judicial Reform Foundation, and Taiwan Criminal Defense Lawyers Association submitted an opinion to the Supreme Prosecutors Office requesting review under the "Directions of the Supreme Prosecutors Office for Reviewing Controversial Final Death-Penalty Cases." The team hopes the Prosecutor-General will conclude that the case is sufficiently controversial to warrant formal review and convene a review panel. It also urges the review to observe the presumption of innocence and the principle of proportionality between crime and punishment, and to provide Wang Hsin-Fu the fair trial he deserves. (Further reading: Ten Doubts in the Wang Hsin-Fu Case)

Lin Chun-Hung, Chairperson of the Taiwan Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said: "The court sentenced Wang Hsin-Fu to death on the basis of a story that does not make logical sense." He identified three central problems: whether Wang's displeasure with the police could plausibly amount to a motive for murder; whether Wang would have ordered Chen Jung-Chieh, who was subordinate to Li Kuang-Lin rather than to Wang, to shoot; and why Chen's flight after the crime was arranged by Li Kuang-Lin rather than Wang. He added that Wang was never given an opportunity to confront and cross-examine the two key figures, Li Kuang-Lin and Chen Jung-Chieh. "The judgment imposing the death penalty contains obvious problems."

Attorney Kao Yang-Hui, Standing Executive Committee Member of the JRF, explained: "The rescue team has consistently maintained that because the state hurried to execute Chen Jung-Chieh before Wang Hsin-Fu was apprehended, Wang was deprived of the opportunity to confront and cross-examine this crucial co-defendant and witness. Under the principle of attribution, the disadvantage created by the resulting uncertainty in the facts should not be borne by Wang. Otherwise, his rights to confrontation and cross-examination and to a fair trial-protected by Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 582 and Article 14 of the ICCPR-are infringed."

Attorney Wu An-Tai of the Tainan Bar Association's Criminal Human Rights Committee said: "The court found that Wang Hsin-Fu supplied the murder weapon, yet forensic testing found none of his fingerprints on it. By the time of trial, the most important witness-the shooter-had already been executed, so Wang had no opportunity to confront a witness whose credibility was in doubt. The trial judge also displayed bias."

Attorney Wang I-Chin, a TAEDP Executive Committee Member and one of the earliest lawyers involved in the rescue effort, added: "Some may argue that these problems resulted from Wang Hsin-Fu's years as a fugitive. But when the defense team reviewed the statement evidence, we found that statements unfavorable to Wang emerged only after repeated police questioning, while evidence favorable to him was disregarded. When we asked for the police-interrogation recordings, they could not be found anywhere. Even someone with the greatest confidence in the judiciary cannot simply ignore these defects."

Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Team

Initiated by the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, the Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Team brings together nine civil society groups, including the Taiwan Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Judicial Reform Foundation, Tainan Bar Association Criminal Human Rights Committee, Taiwan Alliance for the Innocent, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Covenants Watch, Amnesty International Taiwan, and Humanistic Education Foundation.

The Taiwan Alliance for the Innocent focuses on supporting innocent people and their families and has visited Wang Hsin-Fu regularly over the past two years. Executive Director Huang Chih-Hsien said that the person they came to know bore little resemblance to the "heinous criminal" label attached to him. When he became emotional while talking about the injustice of his case, he would quickly say, "Sorry to make a scene," or "Let's not talk about it." She said Wang is not incapable of speaking for himself; rather, after so many years, few people have been willing to listen to someone labeled a "bad person." At 69, he is Taiwan's oldest death-row prisoner and suffers from eye problems and degenerative joint disease. "We truly hope that within his lifetime we can sit in the sunshine and drink tea with him, instead of speaking through bars and a telephone receiver. That is our promise to one another."

The Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) has supported the Wang Hsin-Fu rescue effort through talks and public dialogue, with much of the work in southern Taiwan carried by its Southern Office. Director Lin Tung said that Taiwan's martial-law history impaired not only democracy and freedom but also the judiciary's ability to function as the last line of defense for social justice. Since the 1990s, groups including TAHR, the JRF, and the Humanistic Education Foundation have worked on cases such as those of Su Chien-Ho, Chuang Lin-Hsun, and Liu Ping-Lang in an effort to correct miscarriages caused by systemic judicial failure. As Taiwan has incorporated the two Covenants into domestic law, she said, the government must respect the ICCPR's protection of the right to life and re-examine the unfairness in Wang's trial so that the judiciary can restore his freedom.

Covenants Watch has long promoted the incorporation of international human-rights treaties into Taiwan law and the implementation of universal human-rights standards. Director Chiang Meng-Chen asked: "How can Taiwan, in 2021, still have a person in prison passively awaiting death without ever having received a fair trial?" She called on the Tsai Ing-Wen administration, while building Taiwan's international image, to examine whether everyone in Taiwan is being treated consistently with international human-rights treaties, acknowledge past failures of the justice system, and restore Wang Hsin-Fu's freedom.

Amnesty International has long supported political prisoners and wrongful death-penalty cases in Taiwan. Amnesty International Taiwan began campaigning for Wang Hsin-Fu in June 2021. Secretary-General Chiu I-Ling said that, given the evidence of torture and an unfair trial, Amnesty International hopes the Supreme Prosecutors Office will convene a review panel after receiving the opinion submitted by Taiwanese organizations and the defense team, adhere to the presumption of innocence and the principle of proportionality between crime and punishment, and provide Wang Hsin-Fu the fair trial he deserves.

Since its establishment, the Judicial Reform Foundation has participated in efforts to remedy numerous wrongful death-penalty cases, including the exonerated Su Chien-Ho and Hsu Tzu-Chiang cases and the ongoing Chiou Ho-shun case. Deputy Director Chang Chih noted a recurring pattern: people were sentenced to death without direct evidence, on the basis of statements alone, or without adequate protection of the right to confrontation and cross-examination. He said Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 582 had been issued 17 years earlier, and that the principles of confrontation, cross-examination, and the presumption of innocence should by then have become second nature to every legal practitioner. "Yet our judiciary still owes Wang Hsin-Fu justice."

The Humanistic Education Foundation works primarily on education reform but has also consistently participated in efforts to remedy wrongful death-penalty cases, including the Su Chien-Ho and Cheng Hsing-Tse cases. Executive Director Feng Chiao-Lan attended the press conference to support Wang Hsin-Fu and expressed hope that the organization could contribute further to public dialogue and education.

In recent years, the rescue groups have used many forms of public education and advocacy. They developed mock-trial teaching materials based on the Wang Hsin-Fu case; published the comic Hsin-Fu Is Not Happy; and produced the docudrama Judging Wang Hsin-Fu, in which Hsu Tzu-Chiang, himself once wrongfully sentenced to death, portrays Wang. The mock-trial materials and film are available to high schools, vocational schools, universities, graduate programs, and civil society groups. A digital version of the comic is available on the Judging Wang Hsin-Fu Facebook page for republication with attribution. The Rescue Team will continue its advocacy so that more people see the case. Wrongfully convicting a person labeled a "bad guy" is not somehow acceptable. The groups hope Taiwan's judiciary will give Wang Hsin-Fu a fair-trial opportunity as soon as possible.

Moderator Lin Hsin-I concluded: "The press conference is titled 'When Hsin-Fu Comes Knocking.' The virtual backgrounds used by participants show the Tainan Detention Center, Ministry of Justice, Judicial Yuan, Supreme Prosecutors Office, and Tainan Branch Court of the Taiwan High Court. We want to knock on the judiciary's door together with Wang Hsin-Fu and give him a chance for a retrial in which he can establish his innocence. We also hope to knock on the public's door and invite everyone to join the Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Team in seeking justice for an innocent death-row prisoner."

※ For more information, please check: The Facebook fan page "Judging Wang Hsin-Fu" or the TAEDP case section on "Wang Hsin-Fu."

Appendix

• Full Text of Attendees' Speeches

Attendees

Chang Chuan-Fen / Chairperson, Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty
Lin Chun-Hung / Chairperson, Taiwan Criminal Defense Lawyers Association; Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Attorney
Kao Yang-Hui / Standing Executive Committee Member, Judicial Reform Foundation; Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Attorney
Wu An-Tai / Criminal Human Rights Committee, Tainan Bar Association; Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Attorney
Wang I-Chin / Executive Committee Member, TAEDP; Wang Hsin-Fu Rescue Attorney
Huang Chih-Hsien / Executive Director, Taiwan Alliance for the Innocent
Lin Tung / Director, Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Chiang Meng-Chen / Director, Covenants Watch
Chiu I-Ling / Secretary-General, Amnesty International Taiwan
Chang Chih / Deputy Director, Department of Organization and Advocacy, Judicial Reform Foundation
Feng Chiao-Lan / Executive Director, Humanistic Education Foundation

Press Contacts

Lo Li-Han / Advocacy Officer, TAEDP
Lin Tzu-Wei / Director of Legal Affairs, TAEDP