Attempts to overturn life sentence in favor of death penalty may yet lead to Supreme Court

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/06/23
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A man who raped and killed a female model in Taipei's Nangang District in 2017 avoided a death sentence in a second trial that concluded on Tuesday (June 23).

In February 2017 Cheng Yu (程宇) invited the then 23-year-old woman surnamed Chen (陳) to a photo shoot set for early March. To make the invitation, Cheng used the Facebook account of his girlfriend at the time, who was surnamed Liang (梁).

On the day of the photo shoot, Cheng took Chen to the basement of a building, where he raped and strangled her. Cheng stole the victim's cell phone and credit cards, with which he made purchases.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Cheng. In the first trial, the Shilin District Court sentenced Cheng to life in prison for the murder; four years for raping a different female model; and a total of 15 months for other crimes, such as theft, robbery, forgery, and fraud, all of which added up to concurrent life sentences.    [FULL  STORY]