In 2007, Cecilia was charged with robbing
and murdering her employer, a Taiwanese
national and was sentenced to death in
September 2008.
She was represented by The Taiwan
Alliance to End the Death Penalty, who
emphasized that translation was an issue
throughout the case. The court provided
an interpreter for the hearings and trial, but
the interpreter translated only into English
and not into Cecilia's native language.
Though Cecilia understood English at an
intermediate level, she was unable to
understand the complex legal terms used
throughout the proceedings. As a result,
Cecilia did not have full comprehension of
the legal proceedings or her legal
situation. Cecilia's lawyers argued on
appeal that the inadequacies in translation
amounted to a fair trial violation.
In 2008, owing both to political pressure
and advocacy by Filipino and Taiwanese
organisations, the President of Taiwan
commuted Cecilia's sentence to life
imprisonment. Cecilia remains in prison in
Taiwan.
Li Guo-hui
Li Guo-hui, a 52-yearold man from
Myanmar, came to
Taiwan in 2004 where
he lived in a Burmese
community where
Mandarin was not
spoken. Li is unable to
communicate in
Mandarin at all,
beyond basic phrases.
Li suffers from mental
illness and auditory hallucinations ("voices"), which
he claims compelled him to commit the crime;
setting re to a residential building in 2017. Nine
people died in the blaze.
Li was not provided with a translator during the
investigation phase. As a result, Li signed the
record of interrogation without full understanding
its contents. Inculpatory statements stemming
from this were used against him in court and Li
was sentenced to death.
Li’s lawyer argued that pre-trial issues, particularly
the failure to provide Li with a translator, deprived
Li of his fundamental rights to fair trial and due
process. He stated that Li's case was tragically
emblematic of the procedural disadvantages that
foreign national defendants often face in Taiwan's
criminal justice system.
Acknowledgements
With special thanks to the following organisations
and individuals who lent their considerable
assistance and expertise towards this research in
Death Penalty Research Unit, University of Oxford
For more research see:
fi
foreign-nationals.uwazi.io or tinyurl.com/mappingdeathrow