Supreme Court orders death penalty review for 2022 mass shooter

Taipei, May 26 (CNA) The Supreme Court has remanded the case of a man sentenced to death for fatally shooting four people in central Taiwan in 2022, amid a tightening of the country's criteria for imposing capital punishment.

The court ruled on Monday that the Taiwan High Court must separately assess the sentences for multiple crimes committed by Lee Hung-yuan (李鴻淵), a former employee of Nantou-based biotech contract manufacturer Kang Jian, citing Judgment No. 113-Hsien-Pan-8, issued in September 2024.

In that judgment, the Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty is constitutional only for "the most serious" premeditated crimes that result in death -- widely interpreted as a de facto step toward abolition of capital punishment.

Monday's ruling marked a major shift in the case, after both the Nantou District Court and the Taichung Branch of the High Court had previously imposed and upheld the death sentences against Lee.

On July 14, 2022, Lee killed the brother and daughter of Kang Jian Chairman Lai Min-nan (賴敏男), as well as two employees surnamed Chang (張) and Liu (劉). He also shot Lai in the head, though Lai survived.

The district court sentenced Lee to three death sentences and one life sentence for the murders.

Despite pleading guilty, the culprit appealed the ruling.

The Taichung Branch of the High Court upheld the verdict in December 2023, ruling that Lee's actions constituted "the most serious crimes" defined by the United Nations.

Citing a forensic psychiatric evaluation indicating a low likelihood of rehabilitation, the High Court concluded that the death penalty was the only means to uphold justice and maintain social order. Lee filed another appeal.

In March 2024, the Supreme Court upheld his life sentence, but it did not immediately review the death sentences.

Instead, the court awaited a Constitutional Court ruling on the legality of capital punishment, following petitions for extraordinary appeals filed by 37 death row inmates.

Since President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) took office in May last year, only one inmate, Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱) -- one of the 37 petitioners -- has been executed.

Huang was sentenced to death in 2017 for the Oct. 1, 2013 rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend and the murder of her mother in New Taipei's Sanchong District.

By comparison, two death row inmates were executed during former President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) two terms (2016-2024), while 33 executions were carried out during President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) administration from 2008 to 2016.