Dual Thresholds in Place with Immediate Effect on Plea Bargaining.

The plea bargain system changed, effective July 2008.  The system operated for four years before the change and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) decided to make a change in response to complaints of the system being abused to sell justice.  All district prosecutors offices are bound to adopt (among other) the dual thresholds and must submit all plea bargain deals made to review.

As of the change, all plea bargaining conducted must be co-signed by the original prosecutor and approved by the head prosecutor to protect public interests from being harmed by any indiscreet plea bargain deal.

As to the required submittal for review, the prosecutor must submit the plea bargain deal with the defendant to the head prosecutor or the prosecutor-in-general for his/her approval to affirm the acceptability of the deal made.

Taiwan implemented the plea bargain system in April 2004 with a view to economized use of judicial resources and mitigated number of lawsuits.  However, there has been suspicion from all sides over the possibility of the system having been abused.

According to the relevant statistics compiled by the MOJ, cases involving narcotics account for the majority of the cases referred to plea bargaining over the past four years since the system was put in place followed by cases involving offenses of fraud, forgery of documents, endangering of public safety and larceny.

The system is introduced by reference to the US legal system.  The system as put in place in Taiwan, however, is not applicable to cases involving death penalty, life prison sentence, felony on which an imprisonment of three years or more should be imposed for punishment, and offenses which must be referred to the High Court as the trial court, including those involving civil disorders, foreign invasion, communist spies.

Plea bargaining is proceeded after the accused is indicted (or after the prosecutor has moved for the entry of a summary judgment against the accused) and before the conclusion of the oral summation before the trial court or the entry of a summary judgment.  (2008.8)
/EMA