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Chiang
KUO-CHING
Classification: Innocent
Characteristics: Miscarriage of justice - Rape
Number of victims: 0
Date of murder: September 12, 1996
Date of arrest:
October 2, 1996
Date of birth: 1976
Victim profile:
A five-year-old
girl surnamed Hsieh
Method of murder:
???
Location: Taipei,
Taiwan
Status:
Executed on August 13, 1997
by lethal injection to put him to sleep then he was shot in the
head. Exonerated on September 13, 2011
A military court yesterday acquitted Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), who
was executed for the rape and murder of a girl 15 years ago, in a
posthumous trial.
Chiang was executed in 1997 after being convicted of sexually
abusing and murdering a five-year-old girl.
The Military Northern District Court yesterday morning handed down
the ruling after the Military Supreme Court Prosecutors’ Office filed
an extraordinary appeal with the Military Supreme Court in May last
year to reopen the case.
The Military Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s legal action followed
findings by the Control Yuan that Chiang had been tortured by military
investigators.
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it was the final
verdict and it would help Chiang’s family apply for national
compensation.
The ministry said the court ruled that Chiang’s statements were
made against his will and that the blood-soaked toilet paper and knife
used as evidence against Chiang were re-examined by forensic experts,
who concluded that they could not prove Chiang’s involvement in the
murder.
Shen Shih-wei (沈世偉), an official with the ministry’s Judicial
Department, visited Chiang’s mother Wang Tsai-lien (王彩蓮) at her
apartment yesterday afternoon and delivered a copy of the ruling.
Wang’s attorney Greg Yo (尤伯祥) and two other attorneys were in the
court to hear the ruling.
Yo said Chiang’s family is expected to receive about NT$100 million
(US$3.3 million) in compensation.
Yo, who also represented the Judicial Reform Foundation, called on
Taipei district prosecutors to quickly complete an investigation into
the role and responsibility of former minister of national defense
Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) and other military officers in the wrongful
execution.
Yo said Chen was the mastermind behind the botched investigation of
Chiang’s case.
In an interview in the morning, Wang said: “I will bring the
acquittal ruling to my son and my husband’s shrines.”
She added she would not forgive those military officials
responsible and wanted to see the verdicts against former air force
counterintelligence official Ko Chung-ching (柯仲慶) and others.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division
concluded on May 24 that Chiang, who was serving in the air force
command in 1996 at the time of the murder, was not guilty of the
crime.
Chiang was executed at the age of 21.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has since charged a new suspect,
Hsu Jung-chou (許榮洲), with the girl’s murder.
Prosecutors said Chiang was tortured during questioning, including
exposure to strong lights and being forced to watch a video of the
girl’s autopsy. He was also threatened with an electric prod and
deprived of sleep while being forced to undergo strenuous physical
activities.
Prosecutors said Hsu left bloody palm prints at the scene of the
crime, which a DNA test confirmed were his.
Hsu’s case is pending in the Taipei District Court.
Man found innocent 14 yrs after his execution
DailyChilli.com
September 14, 2011
A Taiwanese air force man was cleared of rape and murder
convictions, but he had long been executed.
Chiang Kuo-ching was caught after a five-year-old girl's remains
were found in the drain outside a toilet at the Air Force Command
headquarters on Sept 12, 1996.
A tissue paper with the girl's blood and Chiang's semen was found
in a dustbin at the toilet, leading investigators to believe he was
the murderer.
While in custody, the Private First
Class was tortured into admitting to the crime he did not commit.
Chiang, 21, was executed on Aug 13, the
following year.
After the execution, his father
embarked on a mission to clear his son's name, but he did not live to
see it come true - he died last year.
The Control Yuan of Taiwan instructed
the case to be re-opened, after finding discrepancies the same year.
A task force comprising members from Taipei and Taichung district
courts, and the military court was established in June.
They found that Chiang had masturbated
in the toilet and some drops of his semen fell onto the tissue. He was
not the murderer.
They said the girl's blood had spilled
on the toilet when she was killed.
On Friday, private Hsu Jong-chou of the guard company was arrested.
Hsu admitted to have raped and killed
the girl, whose father worked at the cooperative of the camp.
In fact, he had confessed to the crime
three months before Chiang's execution.
"I say I did it, you all say I didn't!"
he said while undergoing a lie detection test after he was caught
sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl at a bowling court.
But the investigators ignored his
statement because a medical report said Hsu was subnormal.
They insisted that Chiang was guilty
and did not take into account Hsu's palm print that was found at the
scene.
Thus, Hsu escaped the murder charge but
he was still sent to the military prison for the bowling alley
incident.
After his release, he sexually
assaulted two five-year-old girls and went to jail again in 2003. He
was only released late last year.
A mental examination report confirmed
Hsu to be a paedophilia. He was a victim of domestic violence and was
forced to help the father slaughter 200 to 300 geese daily.
Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶) wrongful dead
Todayshottopic.com
February 2, 2011
Chiang’s story is such a sad story. On Sept. 18, 1996, a colleague
of Chiang alleged that Chiang might have been involved in the rape and
murder of a five-year-old girl surnamed Hsieh (謝), whose body had been
found on an air base six days earlier. Judicial authorities said
former air force commander-in-chief Huang Hsien-jung ordered the air
force’s counterintelligence unit to provide assistance in the
investigation.
The next day, Chiang was sent to the Taipei Police Department,
where he was questioned by police and military police. As
investigators did not make any progress after investigating the murder
for three weeks, on Oct. 2 Chen ordered the counterintelligence unit
to take over the case. The unit immediately subjected Chiang to 37
hours of interrogation and torture. He cried out that he was not
innocent and that he would remember every person’s name who tortured
him and who falsely accused him of rapping the litter girl. He wrote
letters to his family with name of everyone who had betrayed him and
tortured him.
Two days later after being tortured, Chiang confessed to the crime
and the air force closed the investigation. Chiang was executed on
Aug. 13, 1997 by lethal injection to put him to sleep then he was shot
in the head.
In May last year, the Control Yuan censured a military court over
the case, citing seven major flaws in the trial. The next month,
-Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) announced the creation of a
task force to reopen the investigation. Investigators said they
reviewed material evidence in the case, including fingerprints, a
bloody palm print and DNA from a pubic hair sample found on the girl’s
right thigh. They compared that evidence with the prints and DNA of
service members in the air force at the time.
Investigators said they had found DNA and palm prints belonging to
Hsu Jung-chou (許榮洲) at the scene of the crime. Taipei prosecutors on
Friday arrested Hsu and the Taipei District Court approved a request
by prosecutors for his detention. Hsu has since confessed to the
crime.
The President of Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday visited the
family of Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), who was wrongfully executed by the
military 14 years ago for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl,
and promised to clear Chiang’s name in a speedy manner. Ma apologized
to Chiang and his family on Monday through Presidential Office
spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), as well as a posting on his Facebook
page. After visiting the family, Ma told reporters that Chiang’s
mother and uncle said they cared more about clearing his name than
receiving compensation. Unfortunately Chiang’s father passed away a
few years ago never knowing that his son has finally been cleared.
Also it turns out that the so called “evidence” against Chiang was
tissue in the bathroom that had his DNA. They alleged it was his
sperm but now the truth is out and it was not his sperm but rather
snot from his nose.
President Ma vows to family he will
clear soldier's name
The China Post
February 2, 2011
President Ma
Ying-jeou apologized personally yesterday to the family of Air Force
private Chiang Kuo-ching for Chiang's possible wrongful execution in a
rape and murder case 15 years ago. He vowed to pursue justice for the
family.
“I am here to tell the whole world that Chiang Kuo-ching is
innocent,” Ma said during a visit to Chiang's family. He hugged and
assured Chiang's mother that “the government will clear Chiang's
name.”
Ma also paid his respects to the picture of Chiang placed in the
living room at his former home in the Yonghe District of New Taipei
City.
He told Chiang's mother that he could understand the sorrow and
pain she sustained over what had happened to her only son 15 years
ago.
Ma said he personally held up the execution of suspects convicted
in a murder case because he detected possible flaws in the probe and
trial when serving as justice minister in 1996. The suspects are still
appealing that case.
The president already issued a formal apology over Chiang's
possible wrongful execution to the public and to Chiang's family
through spokesman Lo Chih-chiang on Monday. He also apologized for the
social disturbance caused by the case.
In the meeting with Chiang's family, Ma said his apology was an
administrative and social apology for Chiang and his family.
But he cautioned that it would still take time to see Chiang's name
cleared through the judicial system.
Ma said he has instructed the Ministry of National Defense and the
Ministry of Justice to act as soon as possible to help Chiang's family
apply for national compensation and find out who should be held
responsible for the mishandling of the case.
He promised not to take sides in the new investigation.
The president offered informal compensation of NT$200,000 to
Chiang's family. Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu, who accompanied Ma for
the visit, also offered his apology along with NT$50,000 in
compensation.
Chiang, an air force conscript serviceman, was indicted by military
prosecutors in October 1996 on charges of raping and murdering a young
girl at the Air Force Command Headquarters compound on Renai Road in
Taipei in September of the same year largely based on his “confession”
to having committed the crime.
But during his trial in late 1996 and 1997, Chiang recanted his
confession, saying he admitted to the crime only because he was
tortured while being interrogated by military investigators.
After a military court convicted Chiang, an appeals court voided
the verdict and ordered the case retried.
The Air Force Command then intervened by putting the case in the
hands of the panel of judges who originally convicted Chiang, and they
found him guilty again in the new trial.
Chiang was executed in August 1997, less than a year after the
murder occurred.
About 30 current and former military officials involved in Chiang's
arrest, trial and execution are facing criminal and administrative
investigations, including former Defense Minister Chen Chao-min, who
served as the chief of the Air Force Command at that time.
Meanwhile, executive director Lin Feng-cheng of the Judicial Reform
Foundation and Chiang's lawyer formally appealed to the Military High
Court, given that prosecutors have now revealed new evidence in the
case.
Last Friday, Taipei prosecutors arrested Hsu Jung-chou, who has a
prior record of sexual offenses, as a suspect in the case. The Taipei
District Court approved a request for his detention.
Hsu, who served along with Chiang at the air force base, admitted
to prosecutors that he was responsible in the rape-murder case 15
years ago.
But Hsu's father called for the utmost caution in the new
investigation and court trial so that his son will not be mistakenly
charged and convicted like Chiang.
