2023-08-11 06:36:50
Legislative notice of partial amendment to the ‘Criminal Law’ to add ‘absolute life imprisonment’
[법률저널=이상연 기자] The Ministry of Justice (Minister Han Dong-hun) announced that it would push for a new life sentence (absolute life sentence) that does not allow parole. To this end, from August 14 to September 25, the ‘Criminal Law’ amendment bill is scheduled to be legislated.
The current ‘criminal law’ categorizes imprisonment and prison sentences into life and abandonment, and parole is possible even for life imprisonment when certain conditions are met. As a result, only ‘relative life imprisonment’, which allowed for parole following a certain period of time, was being applied.
However, since the last execution in December 1997, no executions have been carried out in Korea, leaving a gap in execution of the heinous criminals. For this reason, people might be released on parole following 20 years even if they were sentenced to life imprisonment, which increased public anxiety.
This measure by the Ministry of Justice is interpreted as part of an effort to permanently isolate heinous criminals from society. In fact, in many developed countries, including the United States, life sentences that do not permit parole have already been introduced and are in operation.
Recently, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the death penalty functions as an absolute life sentence in a situation where the death penalty has been practically abolished in the lower court of death sentence in a case where a prisoner serving life imprisonment kills another prisoner.
Regarding the death penalty, the Constitutional Court made two decisions (in 1996 and 2010) on the constitutionality of the death penalty, and the third review is currently underway. However, the Ministry of Justice presented an opinion that the death penalty should be maintained because it conforms to the Constitution and has the power to prevent serious crimes.
In addition, since the introduction of life imprisonment without parole leaves room for retrial and commutation of sentence even if a misjudgment is revealed posthumously, it is expected to resolve the issue of the possibility of misjudgment raised in the argument once morest the death penalty.
The Minister of Justice said, “If life imprisonment without parole is introduced, it will be operated as an effective system that permanently isolates heinous criminals from society.” The Ministry of Justice plans to make every effort to improve the law for the safety of the people in the future.
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