Taiwan
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 1
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · In November 1997, the Parliament approved the death...
- News items in the archive
- 282
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Taiwan is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 1 the year before. The archive holds 282 news items on Taiwan, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- APRIL 15, 2021TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
TAIWAN: HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR ARSONIST WHO CAUSED NINE DEATHS
The Taiwan High Court on 14 April 2021 upheld the death penalty handed down to Li Kuo-hui, an ethnic Chinese from Myanmar, for starting a fire in an apartment building in Zhonghe, New Taipei in November 2017 that resulted in the deaths of nine people.
DECEMBER 10, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: GOVERNMENT SHOULD CORRECT PROCEDURAL ISSUES WITH DEATH PENALTY, NHRC SAYS
Taiwan's government should correct the numerous procedural problems in the way the death penalty is carried out, Taiwan's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said on 10 December 2020, Human Rights Day.
DECEMBER 1, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: NEW TAIPEI WOMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDERING HER TWO CHILDREN
A woman who killed her young son and daughter before attempting suicide earlier this year was sentenced to death by the New Taipei District Court on 25 November 2020, for a crime described by the court as "extremely cruel and cold-blooded."
JULY 19, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: NEW EXECUTION GUIDELINES SLAMMED BY RIGHTS GROUPS
Taiwan has released new procedures for carrying out capital punishment -- including preventing the condemned from seeing their executioner -- but rights activists said on 16 July 2020 the move merely whitewashes a barbaric practice.
JULY 14, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: NEW LAW REQUIRES PRISONERS BEING EXECUTED TO WEAR HOOD
Death row inmates will soon be required to wear a hood when they are being executed to make the job of the executioner less traumatic, according to new rules announced by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) that will take effect on 15 July 2020.
JUNE 24, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: MURDERER ESCAPES DEATH SENTENCE IN SECOND TRIAL
A man who raped and killed a female model in Taipei's Nangang District in 2017 avoided a death sentence in a second trial that concluded on 23 June 2020.
MAY 20, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: AFTER 19 YEARS ON DEATH ROW, HSIEH CHIH-HUNG FREED
The High Court’s Tainan branch on 15 May 2020 overturned a death sentence on rape and murder charges against Hsieh Chih-hung based on new findings from the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office after it restarted the investigation.
APRIL 21, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: COALITION PETITIONS PRESIDENT TO PARDON DEATH ROW INMATE TORTURED INTO CONFESSION
One week after Taiwan saw its second execution during the tenure of President Tsai Ing-wen, a coalition of NGOs, lawyers, and academics sent her a petition for a presidential pardon for another inmate — Chiou Ho-shun, who over three decades ago was senten
- APRIL 15, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
CZECH REPUBLIC: CONSTITUTIONAL COURT BARS EXTRADITION OF 8 TAIWANESE TO CHINA
The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic on 9 April 2020 ruled that eight Taiwanese charged with being involved in cross-border telecom fraud cannot be extradited to the People’s Republic of China.
APRIL 7, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: HIGH COURT OVERTURNS DEATH SENTENCE FOR HUASHAN GRASSLAND KILLER
The Taiwan High Court on 7 April 2020 overturned the death penalty for a man convicted of raping, killing and dismembering a woman in the Huashan Grassland in Taipei in 2018, and instead sentenced him to life in prison.
APRIL 2, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: INMATE CONVICTED IN SIX DEATHS EXECUTED
A death row inmate was executed on 1st April 2020 in Taiwan, less than a year after he was convicted of killing six people by setting fire to his home.
- JANUARY 1, 2020TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is provided for murder, drug offenses, treason and military offenses.
The death penalty is provided for murder, drug offenses, treason and military offenses.
AUGUST 6, 2019TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: ARCHER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF WOMAN IN TAIPEI'S HUASHAN GRASSLAND
An archery instructor has been found guilty of murdering his female student and dismembering her into 13 pieces and has been sentenced to death.
- MAY 16, 2019TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
TAIWAN: EU URGES TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The EU on 14 May 2019 called on Taiwan to introduce a temporary moratorium on the death penalty after a bilateral meeting on human rights in Brussels.
- MAY 9, 2019TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
TAIWAN: DEATH PENALTY FOR SPIES
Lawmakers in Taiwan voted on 7 May 2019 to amend existing laws to enforce heavier penalties against anyone – locals, Hong Kongers or mainland residents – who leak state secrets or spy for Beijing.
MARCH 29, 2019TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: PREMIER APPROVES DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUNK DRIVING
Premier Su Tseng-chang on 28 March 2019 approved draft amendments to the Criminal Code that could see drunk drivers deemed to have caused fatalities with murderous intent sentenced to death.
- MARCH 20, 2019TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
BRITISH OFFICE TAIPEI CALLS FOR TAIWAN TO END DEATH PENALTY
The British Office Taipei, which maintains and develops relations between the United Kingdom and Taiwan, called on 18 March 2019 for Taiwan to abolish the death penalty on the basis of human rights.
FEBRUARY 21, 2019TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR ARSONIST
The Taiwan High Court on 20 February 2019 upheld convicted arsonist Weng Jen-hsien’s death sentence.
FEBRUARY 6, 2019TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: MURDERER’S DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED BY HIGH COURT
Sun Kuo-huang was spared the death sentence on 24 February 2019 in favor of life imprisonment in the fourth retrial for 2010 murder of a graduate student in Kaohsiung.
- JANUARY 1, 2019TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is provided for murder, drug offenses, treason and military offenses.
The death penalty is provided for murder, drug offenses, treason and military offenses.
- AUGUST 31, 2018TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
TAIWAN: MAN EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD
Taiwan executed a death-row inmate, the first execution carried out under President Tsai Ing-wen's government despite ongoing calls from rights groups to abolish the death penalty.
- JULY 10, 2018TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
NEW TAIPEI COURT SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF 4 YEAR OLD IN HIS CARE
The Taiwanese courts have handed down a death sentence to a man found guilty of the murder of a four year old child, whose care was entrusted to the man and his mother.
- JUNE 7, 2018TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
TAIWAN. LI KUO-HUI SENTENCED TO DEATH
HE KILLED NINE IN AN ARSON
MAY 3, 2018TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: HIGH COURT SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH OVER ARSON THAT KILLED 6
The Taiwan High Court handed down the death sentence to a man found guilty of an arson two years ago that resulted in the death of six members of the same family in an apartment building in New Taipei City.
- JANUARY 1, 2018TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is provided for murder, drug offenses, treason and military offenses.
The death penalty is provided for murder, drug offenses, treason and military offenses.
- OCTOBER 26, 2017TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
TAIWAN: MURDER CONVICT WALKS FREE AFTER DECADE ON DEATH ROW
A Taiwanese man who spent more than a decade on death row walked free after being acquitted of murder in a retrial, boosting calls for the abolition of capital punishment.
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2017TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
Man Sentenced to Death for Murder of Relatives
13 February 2017: a Taoyuan man was sentenced to death for a multiple murder by arson committed Chinese New Year’s eve 2016.
MARCH 3, 2017TaiwanDEATH PENALTYTAIWAN: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH IN NEW TAIPEI FIRE
The New Taipei City District Court handed the death sentence to a man accused of committing arson last year, killing six people in an old apartment building.
- FEBRUARY 13, 2017TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
TAIWAN COMMUTES SENTENCE FOR 2 PINOYS ON DEATH ROW
Taiwan’s Supreme Court has commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence of two Filipinos convicted of murder, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) said.
- JANUARY 1, 2017TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is provided for murder, drug offenses, treason and military offenses.
The death penalty is provided for murder, drug offenses, treason and military offenses.