‘Devastated anew’: Family of Gwangju victim protests decision against death penalty for killer

The family of high school student Lee Chae-won broke down in tears outside a Gwangju courtroom Wednesday after the man who killed their daughter was spared the death penalty.

“The court’s ruling has devastated us anew,” Lee’s family and their lawyers said after Jang Yun-gi was sentenced to life in prison, outside the Gwangju District Court. They made it clear that the verdict had brought them little sense of closure.

“Our hearts as parents are still being torn apart at this very moment, yet the court did not impose the maximum penalty of death on Jang, who brutally took our daughter’s life.”

Jang was charged with killing Lee, whom he had no prior connection to, in Gwangsan District, Gwangju, on May 5.

“The ruling puts the human rights of an unrepentant criminal first while failing to consider the grief of the bereaved family,” Lee’s family said. “If the death penalty is not imposed, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole should be established by law so that violent criminals can be permanently isolated from society. We can never accept this ruling.”

Their anger also extended to the police investigation. It has been revealed that Jang's father was an active-duty police officer and that he had allegedly tampered with evidence related to his son's crime during the investigation. Jang's father is reported to have worked at Gwangsan Police Station, which handled Jang's case, until March last year.

“We also cannot contain our anger over the conduct of police who tried to tamper with evidence,” the family said. “We will not give up so that we can keep the promise we made to our beloved daughter until the end.”

The family’s lawyers said they would ask prosecutors to appeal, as is permitted under Korean law.

The Gwangju District Court sentenced Jang to life imprisonment Wednesday on charges including murder in the course of rape. The court also added an order for him to wear an electronic monitoring device and barred him from working at institutions related to children, adolescents and people with disabilities for 10 years.

The court found Jang guilty of every charge against him, but stopped short of imposing the punishment Lee’s family sought.

“Korea, where no execution has been carried out since the last one in 1997, is classified by the international community as a de facto abolitionist country,” the court said. “The sentence is also consistent with proportionality in relation to numerous similar precedents in which courts have refrained from imposing the death penalty for many years.”

The judges said they had wrestled with whether the severity of Jang’s crimes warranted death.

“As human beings, the judges also seriously considered whether imposing the death penalty would be the proper fulfillment of our duty in this case, where there is broad social consensus on the need for severe punishment,” the court said.

Ultimately, the court concluded that Jang should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

“All judges on the panel unanimously concluded that strictly enforcing the life sentence without ever allowing the defendant parole for as long as he lives is the only way to offer even a small measure of consolation to the victim and her family and to help prevent similar crimes from recurring,” the court said.

Jang was indicted for killing Lee at around 12:10 a.m. on May 5 on a secluded pedestrian path in Wolgye-dong, Gwangsan District, Gwangju. He was also accused of attacking a second-year high school student who rushed toward the scene after hearing Lee scream with a knife.

The killing was not the only crime included in the indictment. Prosecutors also charged Jang with stalking and sexually assaulting a female co-worker two days before Lee’s death and secretly filming the body of a teenage girl while serving as a social service agent.

Jang admitted to all the charges during the trial.

BY JEONG HYE-JEONG [[email protected]]