Female drug addict hit and killed a police officer with her car and was sentenced to death. The High Court of Appeal will hear today

Liu Zongxin, the former chief of the Qingshui Police Station of the Tucheng Police Station in New Taipei City, was killed in the line of duty in September 2024 when a female drug addict Chen Jiaying dragged her car into a guardrail in cold blood. The People's Court of the New Taipei District Court of First Instance sentenced him to death on suspicion of murder. After the case was appealed, the High Court held the hearing today. Liu's father was very emotional at one point and stressed that he would fight to the end to pursue the case to the end. He even angrily said, "If your family members were killed, would you still do this?"

Liu Zongxin, the then director of Qingshui, led a patrol on September 30, 2024, and found that Ms. Chen was driving a car illegally parked outside the red line outside the New Taipei District Prosecutor's Office investigation building. Liu stepped forward to interrogate, and Ms. Chen pretended to cooperate, and then stepped on the accelerator to escape.

The verdict mentioned that during the judicial psychiatric evaluation, Ms. Chen once said about the death of the victim: "It is not my family, so I am not sad." The People's Court of the New Taipei District Court believed that Ms. Chen's attitude after committing the crime was difficult to recognize as remorseful. The collegial panel determined that life imprisonment was not enough to reflect the viciousness of the crime in this case and its impact on social order, so it sentenced her to death.

Chen Nv refused to accept the verdict and filed an appeal. Chen Nv pleaded not guilty to homicide and claimed that the crime was caused by injury causing death. The High Court is in session today. Before the session, Kuomintang legislator Hong Mengkai, the Association for Equal Rights to Life, the Children and Children Protection Action Group Jiji Warriors, and other people and groups came to support the case.

Ms. Chen and her lawyers Qian Jianrong, Lin Junhong, and Gao Yanghui proposed in court that the scene footage should be re-examined and that since Ms. Chen has a young son, the principle of the best interests of the child in the Convention on the Rights of the Child should be considered. Ms. Chen’s defense lawyer argued that the state must have evidence when it wants to kill people and sentence them to death. However, the first trial was not objective and it was all subjective determinations. There were problems with the evidence investigation, and she believed that the investigation should be re-examined.

The prosecutor believes that if the child's best interests principle is included, it may have an impact on the child's future. The best approach is not to include it. If the death penalty is maintained, the children will think that they have harmed their parents. If the sentence is reduced, they will also suffer the pain of being criticized by outsiders in the future. As for re-examining the scene footage, since the first trial has already been legally investigated, there is no need for an investigation.

Liu's father said angrily in court that Liu's daughter would dare to kill even a policeman on duty. Even if he is a small shrimp fighting against a big whale, he will fight to the end. He has suffered heartache and lived a very painful life. Now he is a living dead. He hopes that the defendant will be severely punished. Liu's father even asked Chen's defense team, "If your family members were killed, would you still do this?"

Liu's mother even choked up and cried bitterly, expressing her hope that the judiciary would be fair and impartial and justice would be given to the family. She hoped that the defendant's defense lawyer could understand the empathy of a mother who has lost her child.

The appointed judge said that the collegial panel will consider the disputed opinions raised by Ms. Chen and her lawyer, and the case is awaiting review.