A human rights protection panel under the Executive...

A human rights protection panel under the Executive Yuan [government] asked the Ministry of Justice to make the death penalty optional instead of mandatory as it now is in some cases as a first step toward eliminating capital punishment.
Although the government has made the abolition of the death punishment a vital part of its human rights protection program, the panel said, the general public is still skeptical about the consequences of eliminating the death penalty.
Therefore, the panel suggested that the Ministry of Justice make the death penalty make changes to the effect that all the compulsory death sentences covered by existing law be made optional, to give judges more leeway in deciding what punishment is appropriate.