Taiwan​’s Minister of Justice, Wang Ching-feng, recent­ly resigned from her post after express­ing her strong oppo­si­tion to the country’s death penal­ty. Since her posi­tion was essen­tial to her beliefs but incom­pat­i­ble with those of Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou and some mem­bers of her own polit­i­cal par­ty, she decid­ed not to con­tin­ue in office. ​“I would rather step down than sign any death war­rant,” she said. ​“If these con­victs can have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to reha­bil­i­tate them­selves, I would be very hap­py to be exe­cut­ed … in their stead.” Taiwan has had a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions for the last four years, with no exe­cu­tions since 2005. A total of 49 exe­cu­tions were car­ried out between 2000 and 2005. Taiwan is among 62 coun­tries around the world that still main­tain the death penal­ty, includ­ing China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United States and Pakistan that account for over 90% of all executions worldwide.

(“Taiwan jus­tice min­is­ter resigns over death penal­ty,” BBC News, March 12, 2010). See also International.

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