[Part II of this series can be found here.]
The Heritage Foundation featured a seminar on the topic on November 25th. Apologies to any other blogger who might have covered this already.
The seminar is about an hour and ten minutes long, and well worth watching if you've got the time. Here's a rough outline:
"So without further introduction, I'd like to turn the podium over to Dr. Shieh Ching-jyh, who is — I believe I've got it correctly — he is quite literally a rocket scientist. And apparently, you DO have to be a rocket scientist to understand the Rule of Law in Taiwan."
07:54 — 17:10 Dr. Shieh describes his case and his encounter with the Taiwanese legal system
17:11 — 18:30 Shieh describes Taiwan's preventive detention law
18:31 — 19:30 Shieh describes trial-by-media
19:31 — 20:40 Shieh discusses his acquital
20:41 — 24:30 Shieh talks about desirable changes to the law. He also points out Taiwan's Presumption of Guilt standard.
24:31 — 27:51 Stephen Yates asks the audience to consider the appropriateness of using preventative detention in alleged terrorist cases vs. governmental corruption cases
27:52 — 38:38 Shieh mentions somewhere here that the government does not pay for the defense of civil servants who are accused of corruption crimes. Makes you wonder how any Taiwanese government could function if its members were the perpetual targets of partisan lawfare.
38:39 — 39:25 Yates mentions that in Shieh's case, the prosecutors in their closing arguments cited newspaper stories to suggest "reasonable suspicion" that a crime had been committed. Yates remarks:
"A reasonable suspicion based on a media account of anonymous sources is not exactly a high legal standard to find someone guilty based on a reasonable doubt."
39:26 — 41:32 More Q&A
41:33 — 45:45 A Taiwanese media ass-hat tries to get Shieh to say a few good things about Taiwan's legal system. The CTI reporter essentially asked, Dr. Shieh, don't you feel that the system worked? After all, you WERE acquitted!
Shieh's reply was that the PROCESS WAS THE PUNISHMENT. Shieh was held incommunicado with the outside world for 59(?) days without charge in a cell with 2 other people. That 5' X 9' cell was apparently so small that the three prisoners were unable to lie down flat.
More shocking however, were Shieh's revelations about Taiwan's legal discovery process. Prosecutors apparently confiscated 40 boxes of evidence from Shieh's office and home, and yet the defendent was not permitted access to that evidence.
Shieh's acquital was only made possible by a miracle: the prosecutors' evidence-gathering team somehow overlooked 2 key documents — documents they DIDN'T confiscate and which Shieh was thus able to use in his own defense.
Wild stuff.
45:46 — 1:09:41 More Q& A
I'm a little ashamed now that I didn't follow this case a few years ago.
The other part that struck me as particularly egregious was the prosecution citing Shieh’s affiliation to pro-independence groups as part of its case. Since this case happened during the Chen administration, you have to wonder just how pervasive these problems run in the public prosecutors office and the judiciary at large.