June 27
SOUTH KOREA:
Justice Ministry argues death penalty more humane
The Justice Ministry sent an official letter to the National Assembly
opposing lawmakers' moves to abolish death penalty.
"More than 2/3 of the people are opposed to the abolition of death
penalty," the ministry's recent letter to the Judiciary and Legislative
Committee of the Assembly said. "If brutal murderers are not condemned to
capital punishment, then it will go against the public's feeling of
justice and victims' grudges, and their feeling of private revenge will
increase." Late last year, 175 lawmakers, led by Uri Representative Yoo
Ihn-tae, proposed a bill to abolish the death penalty. It is currently
being reviewed in a legislative committee.
The letter criticized lawmakers' plan to introduce terms of life in prison
without the possibility of parole to replace the death penalty.
"Life-term imprisonment inflicts unlimited agony on convicted people and
is against human rights," the letter said. "It is inappropriate both in
theory and in practice."
The letter also said that because professional judges are in charge of
trials, verdicts that hand the death penalty to innocent people would
hardly occur as opposed to countries with jury systems.
In Korea, no one has been executed since 1997 when 23 condemned criminals
were put to death. Currently, there are 60 people who have death
sentences.
(source: JoongAng Daily)
