Xie Wenxiong, a man, hacked his wife and sister-in-law to death on the street in Tucheng District, New Taipei City last year, shocking the society. In August, the National Judge's Court of the New Taipei District Court sentenced Xie to two life sentences for murder, three months for the injury, and 59 days for violating the protection order. However, on the day of the sentencing, some national judges declined to appear in court to pronounce the sentence. Recently, After the verdict was released, the collegial panel held that Xie Nan only killed two people, which did not meet the concept of killing a "majority" in Constitutional Judgment 8. It believed that more than three people must be killed to be eligible for the death penalty, which triggered public discussion. The New Taipei District Court issued another statement stating that the judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Judicial Yuan is a supplement to the constitution, and judges (including national judges) have the obligation to abide by it.
The New Taipei District Court stated that the consideration of the criminal aspect of this case (i.e. whether to impose the death penalty) was indeed based on the most stringent due legal process method required by the Judgment No. 2/2 or above the consent threshold), and considering the evidence presented by the prosecutor, it is still not possible to prove that the defendant had a serial murder plan at the premeditation stage, and does not meet the "most serious criminal circumstances" requirements of the Constitution 8 judgment (including the "killing of multiple people" requirements exemplified in the Constitution 8 judgment). In addition, the prosecutor failed to prove that the defendant was at high risk of committing homicide again and lacked the possibility of rehabilitation and resocialization. In accordance with the purpose of the 8th sentence, the defendant could not be sentenced to death for the crime of homicide.
According to the prosecutor's investigation, at about 11 o'clock in the evening on May 17 last year, Xie Nan violently assaulted his wife named Zhang, and the victim applied for a civil protection order to the New Taipei District Court and was approved. Unexpectedly, at about 1 p.m. on July 6, when Xie Nan went to Zhang's residence to move personal belongings, he had another argument with Zhang.
According to the prosecutor's investigation, Xie Nan bought the murder weapon that night and drove to his wife's residence in Tucheng the next day, the 7th. At around 11 a.m., he saw his wife and sister-in-law riding a motorcycle together. He drove directly into the car and attacked two people with a kitchen knife and a small aluminum rod, killing them. After committing the crime, he fled the scene and discarded the knife and aluminum rod along the way. When he found that he was being followed by the police, he rushed to the Changhua Branch Shengang Police Station to surrender, claiming that he had mental illness.
The collegial panel pointed out in the judgment that although Xie Nan killed his wife and aunt, although the wife's parents lost all their children at once, and the aunt's newlywed husband suffered the pain of widowhood, paragraph 80 of the 8 Reasons for Judgment in accordance with the Constitution stated that the result of the crime was the killing of "many people" instead of the common "several people" in legal terms.
In addition, in terms of criminal means, Xie Nan used a powerful kitchen knife to kill two people in just a few minutes without causing the deceased to suffer torture or additional pain before death. His behavior was also different from "the use of weapons or explosives, biochemicals, poisons, etc. that are sufficient to cause multiple deaths" and "the use of cruel means that are obviously inhumane, degrading, and extremely abusive to the victims" as examples of criminal means in Paragraph 79 of the Constitution's 8 Reasons for Judgment, and was not particularly cruel.
