A court in New Taipei City sentenced Zheng Jie (鄭捷) to the death penalty on March 6. Last year Zheng killed four people and injured 22 in a knife attack in the Taipei Metro.
Zheng had boarded the Taipei Metro in Longshan Station on May 21 last year. After the train departed, he began stabbing other passengers indiscriminately. Zheng had chosen Longshan Station because the distance to the next stop, Jiangzicui Station, was longer than the average, meaning the passengers were trapped inside the train. This allowed him to kill as many people as possible.
Zheng Jie remained cold-blooded and expressionless when the sentence was handed down. Reports said the day before the ruling Zheng had said that he “didn’t care if he was sentenced to death” and that he hoped the second-instance verdict would be handed down soon.
After the sentence was read out, a smile appeared on Zheng’s face. He has never expressed any remorse for the crime.