Recapping the Dedle River High School Girls' Murder in South Korea

 The defendant in the Dresden student murder case has been getting a lot of attention after the court sentenced him to life imprisonment in both the first instance and on appeal. The defendant pleaded not guilty and the prosecution argued for the death penalty, but the court ultimately sentenced him to life in prison. As a result, many people are curious about the story behind the case. Let's break it down.

Incident details

The incident took place in February 2001 in the Dedle River in Naju. A naked body was found floating in the Dedle River, which was later identified as that of a 19-year-old high school girl, Ms. Park Mo. Traces of assault and bodily fluids were found on her body. At that time, due to limited technology, it was impossible to collect fingerprints from a drowned body. Furthermore, without direct evidence, the case remained unsolved for more than a decade.

However, in 2012, a breakthrough occurred in the case. A person with DNA that matched the sample taken from Park's body appeared in the prosecution's DNA database. The suspect turned out to be Kim Mo, who was already serving a life sentence for robbery-murder.

However, prosecutors said that the suspect's DNA found on Ms. Park's body in 2014 could not be considered direct evidence. The Gwangju District Prosecutor's Office then launched a re-investigation at the request of the victim's family.

Eventually, in August of last year, Kim was charged after 15 years with assaulting and strangling Ms. Park and leaving her to drown in a river. Kim allegedly picked up Park, whom he met in an online chat, in his car and drove him to the Dedle River in Naju to commit the crime.

Remarkably, Mr. Kim was already serving a life sentence for another felony prior to this incident. Although the prosecution appealed the initial verdict, seeking the death penalty against Mr. Kim, the final verdict affirmed the life sentence.

The court ruling

The court noted the heinous nature of the crime, in which the victim, who was only 17 years old, was taken to a remote location at dawn, assaulted, and strangled underwater. Furthermore, they noted that the accused continued to deny their wrongdoing and showed no signs of remorse.

However, given that the death penalty is a punishment that deprives a person of his or her life, which can only be seen as the ultimate punishment in extremely exceptional cases, the Trial Chamber emphasized that the death penalty should only be imposed in cases where there are special circumstances that everyone recognizes as justified, based on the degree of responsibility for the crime and the purpose of punishment.

At the time, the case shocked many people with its gruesome details. It took 11 years for the full facts of the case to come to light and for the verdict to be handed down. The anguish felt by the victim's family during the trial must have been heartbreaking.