President Chen Shui-bian lauded a court decision to...

President Chen Shui-bian lauded a court decision to acquit three defendants who had been on death row for ten years as a ruling consistent with the latest concept of law.
Meeting with Roger Warren, the president of the National Center for State Courts in the United States, the president said modern legal concepts prefer to release a hundred criminals rather than kill one innocent.
Citing a statement from an ancient Chinese law book, Shangshu, which reads "give the defendant the least possible penalty when there is doubt about his guilt, " Chen said this is the cornerstone of modern legal thought.
The three defendants known as the Hsichih Trio were accused of murdering, raping and robbing a young couple eleven years ago in Hsichih, Taipei County, and were sentenced to death in all previous trials until January 13, when the Taiwan High Court cleared them of all charges and freed them.
Chen said the reversal of the judgment would have been impossible ten years ago, proving that Taiwan's judicial system has come a long way.