Toddler Decapitated On Taiwan Street (Photo : Getty Images)
There is a growing call in Taiwan to retain the death penalty after a four-year-old girl was beheaded on Monday by a drug-crazed man. The suspect, Wang Ching-Yu, was beaten by the public and is now in jail.
Wang used a cleaver in decapitating Liu whom he beheaded in front of the child’s mother after he grabbed the girl who was riding a bike toward a metro station in Taipei with her mother to meet relatives. Shanghai Daily reported that Wang pushed away the girl’s mother who tried to save her child from the suspect. Seven bystanders also attempted to stop the crazed man but failed.
While he was being transferred to the prosecutor’s office for questioning, an angry mob who gathered outside a Taipei police station attacked Wang, TV footage showed, reported China Daily.
In 2010, Taiwan brought back capital punishment after a five-year hold on executions. But despite its restoration, only criminals convicted for aggravated murder and kidnapping are meted the death penalty. Until the Monday horror show, Taiwanese politicians continue to debate if they would abolish or keep the death penalty.
The girl’s murder tilted the arguments in favor of keeping capital punishment, especially since it is the second child-killing incident in Taiwan in one year.
Koumintang leader Hung Hsiuchu, who was elected on Saturday, called Wang’s crime unforgivable. She asked in her Facebook page, “Can you accept abolishing the death penalty (under such circumstances)?”
Wang Yu-min, a legislator, pushed for a review of a bill on Thursday that would ensure strangers who kills a child below 12 be executed, or be given a life sentence if proven to have severe mental illness.
The victim’s mother, however, asked Taiwanese to defer discussing the issue of capital punishment in the meantime so they could grieve. She also asked the public not to circulate pictures of the girl.
