In January 2025, the execution of Huang Lin-kai reignited Taiwan's death penalty debate, with activists saying authorities acted in disregard of the law. 

The execution, the island's first in five years, came just months after Taiwan's Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling narrowing the scope of capital punishment and requiring stricter safeguards for its application.

 At the time, some observers thought the ruling meant Taiwan was edging toward "de facto abolition" of the death penalty.

Supporters argue capital punishment delivers retributive justice, deters crime and is backed by public opinion. Opponents counter that the death penalty violates the right to life, risks wrongful execution and lacks proven deterrent effects.

How is the death penalty applied in Taiwan?

The 2024 ruling stipulates that the death penalty is to be applied only in the "most serious cases of intentional homicide." It also opens avenues for appeal and rules that executions must be agreed upon unanimously by trial courts and courts of appeal.

Huang Lin-kai was convicted of a double murder in 2013.

According to the Death Penalty Project, a UK-based NGO providing legal assistance to people on death row, the execution took place while an appeal was pending.

The NGO said Huang was executed "summarily and unlawfully. He and his legal team were given less than four hours' notice of his execution."

This amounted to an "indefensible disregard for the right to life and the due process of law enshrined in the Taiwanese Constitution," the NGO wrote in a press release.

According to the Death Penalty Project, executions in Taiwan are carried out by shooting, with prisoners sedated, laid face-down and shot through the heart.

A political statement for the death penalty?

Justice Minister Cheng Ming-chien defended the decision, saying Huang's case was the only one among the dozens of inmates currently on death row to be fully reviewed by the prosecutor general, in line with the Constitutional Court ruling.

His crimes were considered the most serious, defense counsel was present, verdicts were unanimous, and all legal remedies had been exhausted.

Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai said the process "was carried out within constitutional bounds."

Catherine Appleton, a criminal justice researcher specializing in capital punishment, told DW that she believes Huang's execution had political motivations.

"You've had five years of no executions before. That to me is a political statement saying we want the public to know: We are in favor of the death penalty," she said.

The execution was the first under Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who took office in 2024.

Saul Lehrfreund, co-executive director of the Death Penalty Project, told DW that the execution seemed "so random and so political."

"Why him?" he said. "And what's the rational thinking behind that execution?"

Surveys consistently find that about 80% of Taiwanese people oppose abolishing the death penalty.

Lehrfreund said the issue was far more nuanced. 

Based on his own surveys in Taiwan, he said, if the question were "Do you support the death penalty?" most people would answer "yes." But only about 30% would say they "strongly support" it, he said.

Taiwan is often praised for democratic progress — from legalizing same-sex marriage to its free speech laws. But experts warn that its retention of the death penalty undermines these advancements.

"All the other positives are such a big contrast with China," said Lehrfreund. "But on the death penalty, Taiwan looks the same."

In a statement, the European Union condemned the execution and called on Taiwan to "pursue a consistent policy towards the full abolition of the death penalty."

"If Taiwan is at a crossroads, it must decide what kind of democracy it wants to be. A true democracy cannot keep the death penalty," Appleton said.

A complicated outcome for families of victims

Victims groups in Taiwan remain among the strongest supporters of keeping the death penalty. A 2024 survey by the Association for Victims Support found that over 96% of homicide victims' families opposed abolition.

Lehrfreund acknowledged their pain but insisted that executions are not the answer.

"The death penalty doesn't heal. The death penalty re-traumatizes these people," he said. He cited a new study from the United States of what he called "co-victims."

Though many respondents said they supported executions immediately after crimes were committed, the study found, years later "none of them" said they continued to. 

"They felt that the death penalty just harmed them even more," Lehrfreund said.

In Taiwan, 36 prisoners are on death row. The average span between sentence and execution is 13 years, and some have waited over 20. "The death penalty doesn't allow for any closure and an ability to heal," Lehrfreund said. 

What are the alternatives to execution?

Appleton supports sentences for life in prison with the possibility of parole for the most serious offenses.

Appleton warned that life without parole is simply "another death sentence."

"People will die in prison. It creates hopelessness. That's why many inmates in the US say they'd rather be executed," she said.

She pointed to Taiwan's 2015 Kaohsiung prison crisis, when six long-term inmates took hostages before killing themselves. "Hopeless sentences create dangerous conditions," she said.

Instead, she argues for life imprisonment with parole — not a guarantee of release, but periodic reviews that uphold human dignity.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn