TAIWAN. TWO MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR CANNIBALISM

the Taiwan High Court in Taichung sentenced to death Chen Chin-huo and Kuang Teh-chiang for raping, murdering, and cannibalizing a female insurance agent. The verdict marked the third time a court had mandated the death penalty for the convicted killers.
The two defendants killed insurance agent Shih Chin-chi on December 7, 2003 when she visited Chen's motorcycle shop in Taichung County's Longjing on a sales call.
In a particularly grizzly crime, she was strangled with a rope as her legs and hands were held down. Her belongings were stolen, and she was dragged to the bathroom and raped. According to court records, before she stopped breathing, her neck was sliced open with a knife, resulting in death by hemorrhagic shock.
Furthermore, the convicted murderers sliced Shih up and cooked parts of her body to eat, court documents said.
Because of the cruelty of the crime, the Taichung District Court and High Court had previously found both of them guilty and sentenced the two men to death.
The case was then appealed to Taiwan's Supreme Court, which remanded the case back to the High Court for a new trial in July 2005 because Chen's DNA was not found on the rope used to strangle Shih and uncertainty remained over which of the two men actually killed her. Each man has reportedly accused the other of being responsible for assault. According to the ruling, the judge found that the presence of Shih's DNA found under Chen's fingernails proved he had held her with extreme pressure.
He determined that Kuang strangled her with the rope while Chen was holding her still, and that both men chopped up her body.
Because the judge felt their complicity in the crime was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, he agreed with the previous two verdicts in the case and sentenced them to death. After hearing the court's ruling, Shih's parents thanked the judge for giving their daughter justice.
"Chen Chin-huo and Kuang Teh-chiang should be executed by gunfire as early as possible," said Shih's mother, worried that otherwise Chen and Kuang might be released and harm someone else.