Jan. 26
TAIWAN:
Cannibal's death penalty upheld----NO REGRETS: A high court upheld the
death penalty for two convicted murderers who raped, chopped up and
partially ate a woman, but who have not expressed remorse
The Taiwan High Court's Taichung branch yesterday upheld the Taichung
District Court's death sentence for cannibal Chen Chin-huo and his shop
assistant Kwang Teh-chiang. The 2 convicted killers have still not
completely confessed to the murder of a 28-year-old insurance agent.
Chen Chin-huo and Kwang raped, murdered and chopped up insurance agent
Shih Chin-chi on Dec. 7, 2003, when Shih visited Chen's motorcycle shop.
Chen Chin-huo also confessed that he ate part of Shih's body.
Differing from the district court's sentence, the high court yesterday
added that although Kwang is facing the death penalty, he must go through
a rehabilitation program.
"These two men never expressed regret for what they have done and never
directly told investigators about the details of the case," said Chen
Chi-kang, spokesman for the high court's Taichung branch. "As a result,
the judges believe that it is necessary to put them away for good."
Chen and Kwang are allowed to appeal, although both have said that they
will not.
In the meantime, prosecutors said that they will appeal on the victim's
behalf for the maximum possible sentence because "the death penalty is not
good enough for these 2 sick men."
Both men have already been convicted on 10 counts, each of which carries a
death sentence.
Both of the defendants continue to deny that they killed the victim.
Chen Chin-huo has only admitted that he helped Kwang chop up the body,
while Kwang has only admitted that he raped the victim before she died.
On April 21 last year, a substantial part of Shih's body was discovered in
the water tank of Chen Chin-huo's townhouse in Taichung County, where he
also ran his motorcycle shop.
After Shih died, Kwang sold Shih's laptop and cellular phone to a shop
owned by Chao Yin-chang in Taichung. With Chao's help, the police
identified Chen Chin-huo and Kwang within a short time.
In an unrelated but eerily similar crime, Chao was also murdered and
chopped up by his girlfriend last year, and pieces of his body were
discovered in the Tadu Mountain area in Taichung County.
His girlfriend told the police that she decided to kill Chao because Chao
lied to her about the fact that he was married.
Also, she said that Chao beat her all the time, called her a whore and
asked her to have an abortion 3 years ago.
(source: Taipei Times)
