萬國法律事務所

The Legislative Yuan has passed a bill titled the “Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act” on April 23, 2010. The act aims to reform the current judicial processes in Taiwan where criminal cases can bounce indefinitely between the High Court and Supreme Court and defendants can thus be detained for years, and in some cases even decades.

The act stipulates that if a criminal case has been pending for more than eight years without a final and conclusive judgment, the defendant will be acquitted if he or she was found not guilty in the most recent court ruling, or otherwise if found guilty he or she will be allowed to file a commutation of sentence at that point in the process. In addition, the act restrains the prosecutor’s right to appeal to the Supreme Court where a case has been pending for more than six years from the court of first instance, remanded by the Supreme Court to high court for retrial for more than three times, acquitted twice by the high court before and acquitted again by the remanded high court of retrial this time unless the prosecutor believes the judgment has serious legal flaws that contravene the Constitution or interpretations of the Judicial Yuan or relevant precedents.

Addressing the public’s concerns regarding the extended detention of defendants accused of committing serious crimes, the act stipulates that detention of a defendant whose alleged crime is one that may subject him or her to capital punishment, life imprisonment, or a sentence in excess of ten-year shall not exceed 15 months respectively at the first and second trial level, and 5 months at the third level. Even where a case is remanded for retrial, the accumulated detention shall not exceed eight years. In the event that the aforementioned detention term runs out without a final verdict being handed down, the detention order shall be revoked and the defendant shall be immediately released.

The act is scheduled to take effect on September 1, 2010, allowing the judiciary system time to prepare for the transition into a new phase of criminal procedure.