69 Executed in 1989, Taiwan Regime Says
The government of Taiwan executed a record 69 people in 1989, more than triple the number shot the previous year, a Justice Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
Taiwan law allows the death penalty for murder, rape, kidnaping, gang robbery and other serious crimes. Executions are often carried out with a shot through the heart while the criminal lies face down in a sandpit.
The spokesman said in a telephone interview that 22 people were executed in 1988, and 94 people between 1978 and 1988.
Taiwan, a country of 20 million people, has been plagued by a crime wave, with almost daily reports of robberies, kidnapings, shoot-outs and murders.
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