The Korean experiment with jury trials continues; source article in Korean is at this link.

The man who seriously wounded four people by stabbing them on a street in Yeouido has received a prison sentence from a jury.

On the 25th in the 11th criminal division of the Seoul Southern District Courts, under Judge Kim Ki-yeong, 31-year-old Mr. Kim, who was indicted for attempted murder and other charges for stabbing two former co-workers and two other passersby, was sentenced to 14 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release via an ankle monitoring bracelet.

Mr. Kim was held in prison following his indictment on charges of stabbing four people in the street near the Lexington Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, at approximately 7.16am on August 20th.

The jury explained that “Mr. Kim attempted to murder the victims, his former co-workers, and seriously wounded them before fleeing, and while fleeing he stabbed two other people… the jury has considered the facts that he planned the crime in advance and seriously wounded passersby he did not even know.”

“The victims have suffered psychological harm and expect the defendant to be punished… the jury has considered the possibility of recidivism and the need for the defendant to be isolated from society for a long time.”

In this decision rendered by a jury, it was found unanimously that Mr. Kim had not been bullied by his former co-workers; Mr. Kim was not mentally unsound at the time of the crime; there was evidence of the crime; and that Mr. Kim presents a risk of recidivism.