Taiwan's regret for wrongful execution

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) have formally apologised to the family of former air force private Chiang Kuo-ching for their son's wrongful execution. 

Kuo-ching was wrongfully executed for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl in the R.O.C. Air Force Command Headquarters in Taipei in September 1996. The Air Force team allegedly tortured Chiang Kuo-ching continuously for 37 hours before he finally signed a confession for the crime that the Taipei District Prosecutors Office has now said he never committed.

The family’s lawyer Huang Ta-yuan, who has worked consistently to vindicate his client's innocence, says that approximately NT$22 million in national compensation should be granted to the victims of wrongful convictions. Given that Chiang's father spent more than a decade working to vindicate his son before he died, it must be asked whether any amount can adequately mitigate his loss. 

Sadly, the case is just one among many wrongful executions carried out across the world. 

One might also remember the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004 for allegedly murdering his three young daughters by intentionally setting fire to the family home in Corsicana, Texas. Controversy has raged about Willingham’s guilt, which was determined by the prosecutor’s alleged evidence of arson. The original investigator reported that the fire was deliberately set with the help of a liquid accelerant, as indicated by specific burn patterns and points of origin. Willingham maintained his innocence and appealed his conviction for years, but was eventually executed at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville on Feb. 16, 2004. 

In 2009, the Texas Forensic Science Commission panel re-evaluated the case, and found that state and local arson investigators had used "flawed scientific methodology" to label the fire as arson. In hindsight, and in light of the developments in fire science, experts believe the Corsicana Fire Department were negligent in their findings. The science commission is still investigating; should the judge clear Willingham, it would be the first time in the history of Texas an official will formally declared a wrongful execution.