Home » News » Lee Kyun-yong: Controversial Sentence Reduction and Lack of Gender Sensitivity in Stalking Murder Case

Lee Kyun-yong: Controversial Sentence Reduction and Lack of Gender Sensitivity in Stalking Murder Case

Lee Kyun-yong, candidate for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, goes to work at the office preparing for the confirmation hearing in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the morning of August 30. yunhap news

It was found that the sentence of Lee Kyun-yong, a candidate for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who was criticized for lacking gender sensitivity, was significantly reduced in the case where he killed his ex-girlfriend while stalking her. The perpetrator secretly sneaked into the workplace of the victim, who was a co-worker, and committed murder. It was a similar crime to the ‘Sindang-dong stalking murder case’, which was sentenced to life imprisonment in the appeals court. According to Hankyoreh coverage on the 17th, candidate Lee, who was the presiding judge of the 8th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court in December 2020, was in charge of the appeal trial of Mr. A (65), who was indicted on charges of murder and trespassing into a special building and sentenced to life imprisonment in the first trial. The first trial was overturned and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Mr. A requested to meet again after being notified of a breakup by the victim (58), a co-worker and former girlfriend, but when he was refused, he sent dozens of photos and messages in the form of a will in January 2020. For a week before the crime, he visited the victim’s workplace almost every day and harassed her by spilling drinks on the floor and complaining that it was not cleaned properly. Mr. A wrote in his diary that he would kill the victim and commit suicide, and also wrote down the specific date (January 16, 2020). The content was also sent to the victim and threatened. The victim consulted with a lawyer through her daughter about a ‘safe separation’ and requested personal protection from the police. On January 16th, the very day written in the diary, Mr. A prepared a weapon and gloves, secretly entered the waiting room at the victim’s workplace, and waited. When his request to resume dating was rejected again, he stabbed the victim to death with a weapon. The first trial sentenced Mr. A to life imprisonment and ordered him to wear an electronic location tracking device (electronic anklet) for 20 years. The first trial court blamed the victim, saying that instead of reflecting on Mr. At the same time, he explained the reason for sentencing, saying, “Considering the miserable reality of our society, where crimes such as killing a lover out of immature anger occur all too often, and the need to protect members of our society from such crimes, it is absolutely necessary to severely punish the defendant.” explained. However, candidate Lee, who served as the presiding judge of the appeals court, commuted the sentence to 25 years in prison, saying, “It is unfair to permanently isolate him and deprive him of his freedom because it is too heavy,” even though Mr. A denied premeditated murder and was not forgiven by the victim’s family. The reason given was that Mr. A is 65 years old and has no history of violent crimes such as robbery. In addition, “Mr. A, who immigrated, divorced, and returned to Korea (was previously tried on charges of fraud, etc.), was imprisoned and lived a financially difficult and alienated life. “In this situation, it appears that he had a victim mentality and had difficulty controlling his anger,” he added. In addition, the prosecution’s request to attach an electronic location tracking device was dismissed. Candidate Lee said, “It was not a crime against an unspecified target, but a crime related to passion that arose in the process of not accepting and obsessing over the victim’s request for a breakup,” and judged that Mr. A was unlikely to reoffend. This ruling was confirmed by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court dismissed the prosecutor’s appeal, saying, “According to the Criminal Procedure Act and precedents, the prosecutor cannot appeal on the grounds that the sentence is too light.” Jeon Ju-hwan, the criminal of the ‘Sindang Station stalking murder case’, which was a similar crime to this case, was sentenced to 49 years in prison in the first trial, and the sentence was increased to life imprisonment in the appeal trial. However, a higher sentence was applied to Mr. Jeon: ‘violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (Revenge Murder)’. There are criticisms that candidate Lee excessively reduced his sentence compared to other stalking murder cases. A district court judge in the metropolitan area said, “Compared to defendants in similar recent cases, such as Kim Byeong-chan, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison (for stalking and murdering his ex-girlfriend), and Jeon Joo-hwan, who was sentenced to life in prison on appeal, the sentence (imprisonment) is low. “25 years) is quite low,” he said, adding, “It is a judgment that lacks gender sensitivity.” Previously, as candidate Lee’s tendency to give priority to the ‘offender’ position over the ‘victim’ in sexual violence and domestic violence cases was revealed, women’s groups requested President Yoon Seok-yeol to withdraw the nomination of candidate Lee. Reporter Jeong Hye-min [email protected]
2023-09-17 21:00:16
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