Petition Demanding Severe Punishment for Jeong-in's Adoptive Parents Floods In... More Than During First Trial

Second Trial Has Not Started Yet
847 Cases Submitted to the Court by the 21st
Exceeds 732 Cases from the First Trial... Thousands Expected

At the entrance of the Seoul Southern District Court in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, where the first trial of the adoptive parents accused of abusing and causing the death of their 16-month-old adopted daughter Jeong-in is being held, a citizen is holding a portrait of Jeong-in, urging severe punishment for the adoptive parents.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Jo] It has been confirmed that hundreds of petitions demanding severe punishment for Jeong-in's adoptive parents, who passed away last October, were submitted even before the appeal trial began.

According to the court on the 22nd, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 7 (Chief Judge Seong Suje), which is handling the appeal trial of Jang and others indicted on charges including child abuse resulting in death, has received a total of 847 petitions as of the previous day. All of these petitions demand strict punishment for the adoptive parents. The Jeong-in adoptive parents case was assigned to this trial division on the 3rd of this month. On the day of assignment, two petitions were received, followed by six the next day, and after the weekend, dozens of petitions have been submitted daily since the 7th. Moreover, since the number of signatories per petition has not been tallied, the actual number of participants in the petitions is estimated to be much higher than the number of submissions.

This figure far exceeds the number of petitions received by the first trial court, the Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Division 13 (Chief Judge Lee Sangju). From December last year, when the first trial began, until May this year, 732 petitions were submitted to the court, filling 222 boxes of paper. The appeal trial has not yet started, nor has a trial date been set. If the current trend continues, it is expected that thousands of petitions will be submitted by the time the verdict is delivered.

Petitions and letters of appeal are administrative documents and have no legal effect. They do not influence the court's legal judgment. Nevertheless, the flood of petitions shows the ongoing public outrage over the Jeong-in adoptive parents case. Jeong-in was adopted by the Jang couple in February last year and died at 16 months old after eight months of continuous abuse and violence. At the time of death, Jeong-in’s body had broken ribs and clavicles, and her pancreas was completely severed.

Earlier, on the 15th of last month, the first trial court sentenced the adoptive mother Jang, who was charged with abusing Jeong-in to death, to life imprisonment, recognizing "implied intent." The adoptive father Ahn, who was charged with knowing about the abuse but taking no action, was sentenced to five years in prison. Both adoptive parents, dissatisfied with the verdict, and the prosecution, dissatisfied with the sentence, filed appeals, and the case will be reconsidered in the appeal trial. The appeal court plans to set the first trial date soon and begin a full hearing of the case.