[Reporter’s Notebook] Monsters Beyond Rehabilitation

"Among heinous criminals, there are many cases where their character is inherently impossible to rehabilitate. The argument of 'rehabilitation' should not be easily used as a basis for abolishing the death penalty."

Not long ago, during coverage on the 'abolition or retention of the death penalty,' when asked about the possibility of rehabilitation?a key argument for abolishing the death penalty?Professor Lee Su-jeong of the Department of Criminal Psychology at Kyonggi University responded with these words. It felt like a conviction born from her direct experience facing serial killers such as Kang Ho-soon and Jung Nam-gyu. The views of those who directly deal with heinous death row inmates are not much different from Professor Lee’s.

A correctional officer with nearly 30 years of service called death row inmates who have no possibility of rehabilitation 'monsters.' Indeed, the recent heinous criminals who shocked our society are close to monsters. They harm people without any motive and wield weapons on the streets. They show no remorse after their crimes. Choi Yoon-jong, who murdered a stranger woman on the Sillim-dong hiking trail, expressed amazement saying "Wow" when he saw reporters waiting for him at the police station, and Jung Yoo-jung, who killed a peer woman in Busan, said, "I needed someone to die with me." It is difficult to explain them with anything other than the term monster. Experts in psychiatry and criminal psychology classify them as 'psychopaths' or 'mutants.'

Monsters will continue to appear in the future. Each time, can we transform these monsters into people through rehabilitation and help them adapt to society?

There is also a question of whether it is right to respect the human rights of criminals who recklessly take lives and show no remorse. Life is a precious human right that cannot be exchanged for anything. However, it is also the state's duty to protect citizens' lives from monsters who disregard the lives of others. In February 2010, the Constitutional Court ruled the death penalty constitutional, stating, "The public interest of protecting the lives of innocent ordinary citizens cannot be considered less important than the private interest of the life rights of heinous criminals."

Monsters are not disturbed by having their freedom taken away, but they react sensitively to the execution of the death penalty. Kang Ho-soon, after his death sentence was confirmed, lived a very bad life in prison but recently became quiet after asking a prison officer, "Are you really going to carry out the execution?" Last month, a leading domestic media company commissioned a public opinion research firm to conduct a survey of 1,000 men and women aged 18 and over nationwide, which found that 74.1% supported resuming executions, while 22.6% opposed. Considering this public opinion, the current state of heinous crimes, and analyses of the crime prevention effects of the death penalty, it is time to properly reach a social consensus on the retention and execution of the death penalty.