In the
Criminal Code of the Republic of China, any offences in respect of killing
lineal descendants and murders committed during the course of certain
offenses such as forced sexual intercourse, robbery, kidnapping for ransom
and piracy shall be given severe punishment, death or life imprisonment.
This means a judge in such cases has to face the issue of deciding either
life or death. Accordingly, the study aims to use empirical social science
research methods by an inductive analysis of such cases to demonstrate how
Supreme Court judges determine the boundary between the death penalty or
life imprisonment while making the final ruling on the case so that the
public can better understand the sentencing by judges and the factors
considered in determining the sentences of major murder cases. From the
inductive analysis to statistics and observation of variables and
attributes used in 109 murder cases from 2004 to 2013, it is found that
those cases for 100% death penalty include felony murders such as murders
committed in the course of forced sexual intercourse and a robbery and
murders of more than three people in the same case; murders of two people
in the same case also has a higher rate of death penalty except for few
cases about life imprisonment in accordance with the “shorten sentences if
confessing to a crime” rule before the amendment act of 2005 and some
individual cases. In addition, the study also has the preliminary
discovery and description about those dependent variables such as the year
of sentencing, administrative districts, how long cases last, times of
assignment, the types of cases, number of accomplices, killing tool and
method, when and where to commit a crime, prior charges, the behaviors
before and after committing a crime, the relationship between the
defendant and the victim and whether the victim relatives forgive the
defendant, etc., and the associated influences every attribute has on
dependent variables (the death penalty or life imprisonment). Based on the
relevant literature discussion and observation of the related factors
about how Supreme Court judges determine sentences, the study suggests 1)
the punishment of murder should be found in a separate law, 2) the
sentencing reasoning of a judge should rely on a more detailed
institutionalized standard and 3) the individuals can reserve the “signed
card against death penalty” as their statement for the court in case they
are the victims killed in order to let a judge to consider sentencing
accordingly. It is hoped that these suggestions may provide judges and the
public different insights in cases involving the decisions of the death
penalty or life imprisonment.
