12 Unexecuted Death Sentences Resulting in Death After 25 Years... 59 Confirmed Cases

It has been identified that over the past 25 years, 12 people who were sentenced to death but whose sentences were not carried out ended their lives due to chronic illness, suicide, or other reasons while remaining unexecuted.

According to the Ministry of Justice on the 1st, from 1998 to June of this year, a total of 12 death row inmates died from causes other than execution, such as illness or suicide.

In 2021 and 2019, one person each, in 2015 two people, in 2011 one person, in 2009 four people, in 2007 two people, and in 2006 one death row inmate died in prisons or detention centers due to chronic illness or other causes.

Mr. Lee (then 70 years old) was sentenced to death in February 1999 for killing a man suspected of having an affair with his wife, mutilating and abandoning the body. He was incarcerated and died of chronic illness at Seoul Detention Center in July 2019.

During the same period, 19 death row inmates had their sentences reduced. They were commuted to life imprisonment or reduced to imprisonment or detention for 20 years or more but less than 50 years under Article 55 of the Criminal Act (legal mitigation), which allows for sentence reduction by law.

Excluding the deceased and those with reduced sentences, there are currently 59 confirmed death row inmates remaining. Among them, four were sentenced to death under the Military Criminal Act.

The most recent person confirmed to be sentenced to death is Sergeant Lim, who opened fire at the Army 22nd Division General Outpost (GOP) in a frontline unit in 2014, killing five comrades. He was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in February 2016 and is incarcerated at the Military Prison.

Just before him, in August 2015, a man in his twenties, college student Jang, was sentenced to death for brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents, then imprisoning and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

If their death sentences are not carried out, they will end their lives as unexecuted inmates in detention centers or prisons.