Supreme Court upholds life sentence for man who was removed from death rowBy Wen Yu-te and Jason Pan / Staff reportersThe Supreme Court in a retrial on Friday upheld the life sentence handed to convicted murderer Liu Chih-ming (劉志明), formally removing him from death row, where he has been for the better part of the past decade. Liu’s case is the first time the court commuted a death sentence to a life term, after the Constitutional Court on Sept. 20 found the death penalty constitutional, but said it should be limited to special and exceptional circumstances. The Supreme Court in Taipei is pictured in an undated photograph. In an appeal, the Kaohsiung branch of the High Court upheld the death penalty for Liu. The Supreme Court in its ruling then upheld the life sentence handed to Liu in the fourth retrial, which is the final verdict.
