▲ Cai Chunjin, who killed his daughter with a knife, was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison by the Tainan District Court for homicide, and must undergo custodial treatment for 3 years after serving his sentence.
Reporter Lin Yue/Tainan Report
In the murder case of An Mu in Annan District, Tainan City, Taiwan, a 59-year-old woman surnamed Tsai hacked her daughter to death. The Tainan District Court Collegiate Court held after a trial that Tsai suffered physical and mental injuries due to long-term care of her mentally unstable daughter. They were all under great pressure, and what followed was the defendant's own depression, stomach problems and other diseases. The defendant finally commuted his sentence in accordance with the law because of his mental illness, and Cai was sentenced to years and June. And must undergo supervised treatment for 3 years after serving his sentence.
The verdict pointed out that Ms. Cai’s daughter has been suffering from severe mania, primary insomnia and other diseases since 2016. After treatment, her condition has not improved. She is unable to leave the house, spends her days and nights, and has frequent thoughts of suicide (one of which was in 2019). In October 2019, he asked her mother to kill her with a long knife), and after being hospitalized in 2019, she began to attack her mother.
The judge held that the mother was Li's main caregiver. Under long-term physical and mental stress, she suffered from depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, gastroesophageal reflux disease, esophagitis and gastric ulcer and other diseases. Because I had seen social news about mentally ill people killing people, I was worried that Ms. Li might kill other family members when she became ill, which made the negative emotions accumulated over the years reach an unbearable level. After noon on October 25, 2020, Cai had a significantly reduced ability to control his behavior due to the aforementioned mental disorder. After writing a suicide note in the living room of his residence, he took a kitchen knife with the intention of killing and went to the room on the third floor. While the woman was sleeping, he held a kitchen knife and slashed at Nu's head and neck. During the process, Li stretched out her hand to block her, but Cai continued to chop.
After Cai's husband found his wife's suicide note, he couldn't find her in the house and went to the police station to report the crime. After the police reviewed the surveillance footage, they found that she had not gone out. When he returned to his residence to check, he found that his wife was in his daughter's room, and the daughter had already found her. Li's daughter was lying on the ground with multiple stab wounds on her head and neck. Cai Chunjin held a kitchen knife and said to her husband, "I don't want to live anymore (in Hokkien)." Ms. Li was rushed to Annan Hospital for emergency treatment, but she still died.
The judge of the collegiate court pointed out that Cai was under great physical and mental pressure due to long-term care of the mentally unstable victim. This was followed by the defendant's own depression, stomach problems and other diseases. The defendant was eventually affected by mental illness, resulting in In this case, his ability to control his behavior based on his identification was obviously lower than that of ordinary people. Therefore, when the defendant acted, his ability to act based on his recognition was significantly reduced due to mental disorder, and his sentence was reduced in accordance with the provisions of Article 19, Item 2, of the Criminal Law.
Defendant Ms. Cai suffered from depression, stomach problems and other diseases, and she took care of the victim for a long time, which put her under great physical and mental pressure. After being exhausted physically and mentally for a long time, she was ultimately unable to bear her negative emotions and made a big mistake. Therefore, the defendant Because the motives and methods of ordinary homicide cases are obviously different from old grudges, violent fights, seeking money and killing, or indiscriminate random killings, the defendant can be considered guilty of homicide, even if he is punished according to Article 19 of the Criminal Law Paragraph 2 stipulates that the minimum statutory sentence after commutation is 5 years' imprisonment. There is still a risk that the circumstances may be too light and the law may be too heavy. It is enough to arouse the sympathy of the general public, so it is worthy of mercy. The judge shall reduce his sentence in accordance with Article 59 of the Criminal Law. , and be reduced in accordance with the law.
The judge considered that the defendant Cai Nv was required to undergo long-term and intensive mental, psychological and rehabilitation treatment to help improve her physical and mental health and cognitive problems, so she recommended that the defendant be subject to custodial treatment for more than 3 years. Furthermore, after the incident, the defendant still lacked awareness of illness and felt that he had no mental symptoms. The court considered it to prevent the defendant from committing similar illegal acts again and ordered the defendant to be placed in a corresponding place and monitored for 3 years after the execution of the sentence or pardon. They are expected to receive complete treatment in specialized hospitals or other medical institutions to help stabilize their mental symptoms, so as to avoid unpredictable harm to their individuals, families and society caused by the defendant's disease. The case can be appealed.
