(12:57, judgment reasoning updated) A man surnamed Zhou from Taipei City stabbed an elderly man surnamed Li, whom he had never met before, 27 times with a knife last year, killing him. The Taipei District Court sentenced Zhou to life imprisonment. During the high court trial, the victim’s wife knelt in court and cried, begging the judge to sentence Zhou to death. The high court, considering that Zhou suffers from schizophrenia and had written a letter of remorse expressing his apology after the crime, still sentenced him to life imprisonment, sparing him from the death penalty. The case is subject to appeal.
On the morning of June 12, 2016, an 88-year-old man surnamed Li went hiking in the Four Beasts Mountain area in Xinyi District, Taipei City, but went missing. Emergency services were alerted by his family and found Li at a pavilion on the Hushan Trail. He had been stabbed 27 times, bled profusely, went into shock and died. Police subsequently arrested Zhou.
After being arrested, Zhou claimed that he had been suffering from mental illness since 2014, often experiencing delusions of persecution such as “being targeted by a sniper,” “being watched,” or “people wanting to kill or hurt me,” as well as persistent auditory hallucinations. He also argued that the elderly man had complained about his dog being dirty and smelly and had attacked him first, prompting him to strike back with a knife.
The Taipei District Court commissioned a hospital to assess Zhou’s mental state, which concluded that he exhibited tendencies of antisocial personality disorder and suffered from mental illnesses including schizophrenia. The judge determined that Zhou had committed murder and met the conditions for aggravated sentencing as a repeat offender. His actions caused irreparable grief to the victim’s family, but taking into account the international covenants that prohibit the death penalty for individuals with mental disorders, Zhou was only sentenced to life imprisonment.
After the appeal, the victim’s wife appeared in court, sobbing as she said her husband’s body was covered in stab wounds and they could barely dress him for the funeral. She knelt on the ground and cried, begging the judge to sentence Zhou to death, saying, “I hope my husband is the last victim.”
The high court ruled that Zhou had previously been sentenced and convicted for attempted murder, and had committed this new murder less than half a year after being released from prison, demonstrating his severe criminal nature. However, considering that he confessed to the crime after the fact and suffers from schizophrenia, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder. The case is subject to appeal.
(China Times)