The abolition of the death penalty in Taiwan is not...

The abolition of the death penalty in Taiwan is not yet around the corner, but draft legislation that seeks to plug some of the law's weaknesses marks no small step in the government's efforts to get it out of the statute books eventually.The proposed changes, contained in draft legislation approved by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led Cabinet on Jul. 11, would ban capital punishment for minors under 18 years of age and drop all mandatory death sentences.The elimination of the death penalty was a major campaign promise of DPP President Chen Shui-bian, a former human rights lawyer, legislator and former Taipei mayor whose inauguration two years ago ended nearly 55 years of rule by the Kuomintang (KMT) or Nationalist Party of China).The number of executions has also dropped since the DPP-led government took office - from 24 in 1999, it fell to 17 persons and slid further to 10 in 2001. Three people were executed during the first five months of 2002.In announcing the Cabinet proposals, minister without portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung reaffirmed that abolition of the death penalty remains the goal of the DPP-led government, but acknowledged that "complementary measures must be implemented before most citizens could accept an end to capital punishment".