Recently, as the number of indiscriminate ‘killer riots’ has continued, the Ministry of Justice is promoting measures such as ‘life imprisonment without parole’ and ‘judicial hospitalization’.
The intention is to strengthen punishment for heinous crimes and reduce the possibility of committing crimes in advance, but there are not a few controversies that need to be overcome for institutionalization.
Reporter Lim Seong-ho pointed out.
[Reporter]
The highest sentence in Korea is the death penalty.
However, no executions have been carried out since the end of 1997, so it is classified as a de facto abolitionist country, and naturally, life imprisonment is considered the highest punishment.
However, whenever heinous crimes such as the ‘don’t ask 메이저놀이터weapon riot’ occurred, voices in favor of the death penalty continued.
Criticism continued that there was a gap in the ‘execution of the sentence’ because of the current law, which allows parole after 20 years in prison even if sentenced to life imprisonment.
It is interpreted that the Ministry of Justice’s legislative notice to introduce ‘life imprisonment without parole’ took this situation into account.
Specifically, the goal is to amend the provisions of the Criminal Law that stipulated life imprisonment.
After dividing life sentences for which parole is permitted and life sentences for which parole is not permitted, parole is possible only when the court sentences the latter sentence.
The Ministry of Justice emphasizes the need to introduce ‘life imprisonment without parole’ in order to permanently quarantine heinous criminals while maintaining the death penalty in accordance with the Constitution.
[Han Dong-hoon / Minister of Justice: Introducing life imprisonment without parole… . I would like to inform you that we will promote (measures) to strengthen the punishment for heinous crimes.]
However, the objections are not easy.
It has not been verified whether it is effective in preventing heinous crimes, and it can cause difficulties in correctional management by blocking the opportunity for parole at all.
There is a possibility that the issue of unconstitutionality will arise.
In 2010, the Constitutional Court pointed out that life imprisonment without parole is more humane than the death penalty in terms of maintaining life, but it is a punishment comparable to the death penalty in that it confines the prisoner until a natural death.
At the same time, he pointed out that this could raise the death penalty and other unconstitutionality issues.
The ‘introduction of the judicial hospitalization system’ that the Ministry of Justice is promoting also has many tasks to be resolved.
It is to allow the court to forcibly hospitalize severely mentally ill patients who are highly violent or require hospitalization
.
It’s just too bad.
Intense debate seems inevitable until the Ministry of Justice’s successive countermeasures for heinous crimes, which focus on strengthening crime response and punishment, are actually introduced.