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When an inmate in his 20s who was handed over to trial for assaulting and killing a prisoner in the same room in prison was again sentenced to life imprisonment, the bereaved family strongly protested.
The 1st Criminal Division of Gongju Branch of the Daejeon District Court (Chief Judge Mae-kyung Kim) sentenced A (27), a 27-year-old inmate charged with murder, to life imprisonment today (27th).
In the judgment, the court said, "It is difficult for anyone to estimate the tragic feelings the victim must have felt until death and the suffering of the family. This is very suspicious.”
However, he explained, "It is difficult to conclude that there are objective circumstances that anyone can admit that the accused should be put to death because it is difficult to believe that he had an active and clear intention to kill from the beginning."
Mr. A was charged with assaulting and killing his colleague inmate B, in his 40s, several times in the living room of the Gongju prison on December 21 last year.
He is also accused of hitting or harassing Mr. B for no apparent reason on a regular basis.
In 2019, Mr. A was sentenced to life in prison for robbery and murder, including hitting and killing a 40-year-old who came to trade gold in Gyeryong, Chungcheongnam-do with a sledgehammer and stealing 100 gold and a vehicle.
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Prosecutors demanded the death penalty at the decision trial held earlier, saying, "There is a high risk of recidivism, and effective criminal sanctions against armed prisoners can be used to prevent the tyranny of other weapons."
The court sentenced two inmates in the same room to two years and six months in prison and five years in prison, respectively, acknowledging only the charges of aiding the murder.
It was judged that there was no credibility in the statement of the main culprit, "A," that "they all assaulted and killed B."
Regarding the two other inmates, the court said, "The victim's health condition gradually deteriorated due to Mr. A's assault, and he abetted the murder by looking into the net even though he knew that he could die." It would have been difficult to kill the victim.”
However, after the sentence was over, the bereaved family claimed that the injustice was not resolved, but rather increased.
Regarding this sentence, the bereaved family said, "It is a judgment that cannot be understood from the common sense," and pointed out, "I was sentenced to life imprisonment again after committing murder and being sentenced to life imprisonment. Is life imprisonment a harsher punishment than the death penalty?"
Then he strongly protested, saying, "Does a life-threatening prisoner continue to be sentenced to life in prison even if he kills and kills again?