Christian-seeker judge urges public to pick on existing laws, not judges

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

      Taiwan Church News

      3055 Edition

      September 13~19, 2010

       

       

      Christian-seeker judge urges public to pick on existing laws, 
not judges

       

      Reported by Chen Wei-jien

      Written by Lydia Ma

       

       



      In recent weeks, a series of trials involving sexual abuse of 
young girls that ended 

      with overly light sentences have sparked public uproar across 
Taiwan and cast 

      doubts on the integrity of judges and the judicial system in 
general.

       



      In response to the flurry of negative publicity judges have 
gotten as result of these 

      lenient rulings, one judge who happens to be a Christian-seeker 
and regular 

      churchgoer in central Taiwan said a lot of his colleagues who 
tried to judge fairly 

      and with integrity had been feeling under pressure lately due 
to indiscriminate public backlash.

       



      This judge, who preferred to remain anonymous, confided that 
lenient sentences 

      for child molestation had sparked a lot of debate among judges 
too. But he pointed 

      out that judges are required to pass down sentences based on 
existing laws and 

      regulations. Most of these laws were passed after a lot of 
scrutiny and haggling in 

      the legislature from experts and social groups.

       



      He underscored there is proper recourse to public 
dissatisfaction with court rulings 

      and said that people who feel their expectations for justice 
weren’t met should seek 

      recourse by amending existing regulation, instead of making 
general or personal 

      attacks on judges and their integrity.

       



      Presently, Taiwanese laws stipulate that any offender charged 
with sexually 

      molesting a child less than seven years of age must receive a 
minimum of seven 

      years in prison.

       



      “To a certain extent, we judges have been asked to do work that 
only God is 

      qualified to do,” this judge concluded. He emphasized that as 
long as humans are 

      the ones doing the judging mistakes will always be a 
possibility – hence the reason 

      for a system of appeals to compensate for human error. 

       



      In Taiwan, defendants have a legal right to appeal a district 
court’s ruling to a high 

      court, and a high court’s ruling to the Supreme Court, if they 
aren’t satisfied. This 

      “three appeals” mechanism acts as a system of checks and 
balances against human error.

       



      Speaking for himself on how he is weathering the current public 
storm, this judge 

      remarked candidly, “Judges who have a religious faith manage to 
ride it out 

      because they can face these pressures with a sense of serenity.”

       

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