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Although executions have stopped in Korea, death sentences continue to be intermittent.

Analysis of the cases in which the death penalty was sentenced in the first trial over the past 20 years reveals a change in the reason.



There are also voices that a new punishment is needed between the death penalty and life imprisonment, and this news will be delivered by reporter Park Chan-geun.



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We looked at the reasons for the 38 sentences sentenced to death in the first trial since 2000.



In 1999, a man in his 30s drowned a vehicle carrying his two daughters and two nephews into a reservoir for death insurance.



The judge, who could not contain his anger and rebuke while sentenced to death, wrote the reason for the sentence that the accused was to be treated with the death penalty.



Most of the sentences sentenced at this time emphasized punishment for the accused who committed terrible crimes, such as 'the crime against humanity' and 'retribution for the crime'.



In the 2010s, the verdict was slightly different.



Since there is no absolute life sentence without parole in Korea, there are frequent rulings stating that it is difficult to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment, which can be released later.



In the past decade, the only cases in which the Supreme Court has confirmed the death penalty have been the murderer of a girlfriend's parents in 2015 and a sergeant who shot and killed five people at the GOP in 2016.



Since the death penalty has been virtually abolished, there are also proposals from judges to establish a system to replace the death penalty, such as absolute life imprisonment without parole.



[Kim Seong-ju / Chief Judge of Gwangju Judicial Court: I have experienced cases where a criminal who was sentenced to a severe sentence such as murder and released on parole again committed a felony such as murder.

I think there is a need to introduce a practical life sentence.]



The special law on the abolition of the death penalty proposed by Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Sang-min and others last year could be a starting point for discussion by adopting life imprisonment without parole instead of abolition of the death penalty.



However, even absolute life imprisonment does not serve the purpose of punishment of rehabilitating criminals and returning them to society, and since it is a permanent deprivation of physical freedom, the unconstitutionality controversy may be repeated.



(Video editing: Park Ki-duk, CG: Choi Ha-neul)