死刑量刑準則的十年回顧

The Development of the Sentencing Guidelines for the Death Penalty in Taiwan in the Past Decade

2013年初，最高法院在判決中建構我國第一套死刑量刑基準。自此之後，事實審法院的死刑決定需要經過不同層次的審酌，死刑判決開始跟一般刑案區隔開來，死刑判決的數量下降。不過，與其說死刑量刑基準的意義在於減少死刑判決，不如說是促使我國法院就死刑的判斷更為細緻。即便死刑量刑基準本身與實踐方式仍有可被爭議的地方，解決問題的對策衍生其他問題，但法院必須通過量刑基準的審查才能決定被告的生死，本身就是司法的進步。

In early 2013, the Supreme Court in Taiwan constructed the first set of sentencing guidelines for the death penalty. Since then, capital punishment decisions by the trial courts have required thorough consideration at different levels. Death sentences started to diverge from other criminal cases, resulting in a decline in the quantity of death penalty verdicts. While the decline of death penalty judgments attracts the most attention, the significance of establishing the sentencing guidelines for the death penalty lies in encouraging our country’s courts to make more nuanced judgments on capital punishment.
Although the meaning and practical implementation of the death penalty sentencing guidelines still have contentious aspects, and the strategies employed to address these issues have given rise to other challenges, the fact that courts must scrutinize all relevant factors at different levels before making the life or death decisions represents progress within the judicial system.