ID :
43985
Tue, 02/03/2009 - 19:14
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/43985
The shortlink copeid
(News Focus) Fury at serial killer rekindles debate on death penalty ahead of court ruling
By Kim Boram
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- The recent macabre crimes of a serial killer who
victimized young women have rekindled an age-old debate in South Korea on whether
to keep capital punishment legal ahead of what is expected to be a watershed
ruling by the country's Constitutional Court this year.
Kang Ho-soon, 38, was arrested last week on suspicion of murdering a female
college student. An ensuing investigation tied him to the unsolved death of a
housewife. He then confessed to killing five more women between 2006 and 2007.
The details and the reported motives of the killings have sparked increased and
fervent debate on whether criminals are corrigible, and whether they should be
punished by death. Kang, according to investigators involved in the questioning
and reenactment of the killings, does not appear ill at ease in talking about the
victims, how he lured them into his car with intent to rape.
The Ministry of Justice has yet to take a clear position on the death penalty.
The Constitutional Court ruled in 1996 that it was constitutional but left the
door open by saying it was time to discuss whether the Korean society needed to
retain the measure.
The matter was taken to the Constitutional Court again when a local court
accepted a request by another serial killer sentenced to death in 2007 and asked
for redeliberation. A public hearing is scheduled for June, after which a ruling
is expected.
South Korea has not carried out capital punishment since it executed 23 people
in December 1997 just months before then President Kim Young-sam left office.
Amnesty International (AI), one of the world's most influential human rights
watchdog, accordingly categorized the country as a de facto abolitionist country
in 2007.
In the international community, the argument to end capital punishment has gained
wide support from many organizations and nations.
According to the AI, 138 countries abolished the death penalty in law or
practice, compared to 59 nations that still hold it legal as of last year. In
1977, only 17 countries had banned the death penalty.
The United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium of executions
for the first time in 2007, and the European Union requires its member countries
to abolish it.
This global movement has given momentum to a move to remove the death penalty in
South Korea, where a total of 902 people have been executed since it was allowed
by law in 1948. There are still 58 inmates on death row in the country.
Lawmaker Park Sun-young submitted a bill to remove the death penalty from the
penal laws last year, proposing to replace it with life imprisonment without
pardon or parole. However, a couple of parliamentary bills of similar kind had
been on hold for years and then abrogated due to polarized opinions on the issue.
South Korea's human rights commission also recommended in 2005 that it be banned.
During the past decade, however, serial killers including Jeong Nam-gyu,
convicted in 2006 for killing 13 people, and Yoo Young-chul, caught in 2004 after
murdering 21 women, sent shockwaves throughout the nation and boosted a campaign
by conservatives to maintain the death penalty and resume executions to "protect
society from the criminals."
The Correction Welfare Society of Korea, a group of a rehabilitation experts,
demanded on Sunday that South Korean government carry out execution of inmates on
death row as soon as possible, saying in a statement, "Capital punishment is
necessary to reduce vicious crimes and prevent potential criminals from
committing the offenses."
"Punishment should be strictly administered. As Korea has capital punishment,
execution will help cut down crime rate at large," said Cheon Jeong-hwan, vice
president of the organization. "There are inmates who plead guilty and want to be
executed, like Yoo Young-chul. In their cases, there is no doubt about whether we
have the wrong person."
Still, rights activists and religious groups argue that punishment by death is
not an effective method to suppress crime, that malfunctioning society is the
cause of such crimes.
"The offenses show the systematic problems of our society. All of us are
responsible for the crimes," said Kim Deok-jin, director of a Catholic's human
rights committee. "If we lay the blame on one individual, it's an act of
cowardice."
Differing from his two predecessors Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, President Lee
Myung-bak had said during his presidential campaign in 2007 that he was in favor
of capital punishment.
brk@yna.co.kr
(END)
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- The recent macabre crimes of a serial killer who
victimized young women have rekindled an age-old debate in South Korea on whether
to keep capital punishment legal ahead of what is expected to be a watershed
ruling by the country's Constitutional Court this year.
Kang Ho-soon, 38, was arrested last week on suspicion of murdering a female
college student. An ensuing investigation tied him to the unsolved death of a
housewife. He then confessed to killing five more women between 2006 and 2007.
The details and the reported motives of the killings have sparked increased and
fervent debate on whether criminals are corrigible, and whether they should be
punished by death. Kang, according to investigators involved in the questioning
and reenactment of the killings, does not appear ill at ease in talking about the
victims, how he lured them into his car with intent to rape.
The Ministry of Justice has yet to take a clear position on the death penalty.
The Constitutional Court ruled in 1996 that it was constitutional but left the
door open by saying it was time to discuss whether the Korean society needed to
retain the measure.
The matter was taken to the Constitutional Court again when a local court
accepted a request by another serial killer sentenced to death in 2007 and asked
for redeliberation. A public hearing is scheduled for June, after which a ruling
is expected.
South Korea has not carried out capital punishment since it executed 23 people
in December 1997 just months before then President Kim Young-sam left office.
Amnesty International (AI), one of the world's most influential human rights
watchdog, accordingly categorized the country as a de facto abolitionist country
in 2007.
In the international community, the argument to end capital punishment has gained
wide support from many organizations and nations.
According to the AI, 138 countries abolished the death penalty in law or
practice, compared to 59 nations that still hold it legal as of last year. In
1977, only 17 countries had banned the death penalty.
The United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium of executions
for the first time in 2007, and the European Union requires its member countries
to abolish it.
This global movement has given momentum to a move to remove the death penalty in
South Korea, where a total of 902 people have been executed since it was allowed
by law in 1948. There are still 58 inmates on death row in the country.
Lawmaker Park Sun-young submitted a bill to remove the death penalty from the
penal laws last year, proposing to replace it with life imprisonment without
pardon or parole. However, a couple of parliamentary bills of similar kind had
been on hold for years and then abrogated due to polarized opinions on the issue.
South Korea's human rights commission also recommended in 2005 that it be banned.
During the past decade, however, serial killers including Jeong Nam-gyu,
convicted in 2006 for killing 13 people, and Yoo Young-chul, caught in 2004 after
murdering 21 women, sent shockwaves throughout the nation and boosted a campaign
by conservatives to maintain the death penalty and resume executions to "protect
society from the criminals."
The Correction Welfare Society of Korea, a group of a rehabilitation experts,
demanded on Sunday that South Korean government carry out execution of inmates on
death row as soon as possible, saying in a statement, "Capital punishment is
necessary to reduce vicious crimes and prevent potential criminals from
committing the offenses."
"Punishment should be strictly administered. As Korea has capital punishment,
execution will help cut down crime rate at large," said Cheon Jeong-hwan, vice
president of the organization. "There are inmates who plead guilty and want to be
executed, like Yoo Young-chul. In their cases, there is no doubt about whether we
have the wrong person."
Still, rights activists and religious groups argue that punishment by death is
not an effective method to suppress crime, that malfunctioning society is the
cause of such crimes.
"The offenses show the systematic problems of our society. All of us are
responsible for the crimes," said Kim Deok-jin, director of a Catholic's human
rights committee. "If we lay the blame on one individual, it's an act of
cowardice."
Differing from his two predecessors Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, President Lee
Myung-bak had said during his presidential campaign in 2007 that he was in favor
of capital punishment.
brk@yna.co.kr
(END)
