[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 29


SOUTH KOREA:

South Korea seeks death sentence for man who killed 21 people


Prosecutors on Monday requested the death sentence for a South Korean man
accused of killing 21 people in the country's worst serial murder case in
decades.

Yoo Young-chul, a 33-year-old with a history of epilepsy and convictions
for theft and sexual abuse, was indicted in August for the murders, many
of them female prostitutes and older, wealthy people.

The case shocked South Korea, a relatively safe nation of 48 million
people where the murder rate hovers just below 1,000 a year.

District prosecutors in the capital, Seoul, requested capital punishment
Monday for Yoo, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

The court is to give its verdict and determine sentencing Dec. 13.

Police say Yoo blamed his past misfortunes on the wealthy and women.

Yoo allegedly lured prostitutes back to his apartment, using different
mobile telephones to avoid being traced, and killed them with a hammer
that he made himself and then dismembered their bodies.

The killing spree began in September 2003 when police say Yoo murdered a
73-year-old professor and his wife.

(source: Associated Press)