'We try to understand why they commit crimes,' anti-death-penalty advocate unpacks her work to end capital punishment in Taiwan (feat. Lin Hsin-yi)

On April 23, the Constitutional Court of Taiwan convened a hearing to assess the constitutionality of the death penalty. This came after 37 individuals on death row submitted a petition, contending that capital punishment violates their constitutional right to life. In this edition of The Divide, we sit down with Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡), the executive director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, who has been a staunch advocate for abolition since the early 2000s. Lin sheds light on the prevalence of wrongful convictions and underscores the pervasive biases within the judicial system that often go unnoticed.