ladyarkles
04-11-2005, 02:59 AM
SOUTH KOREA:
Ministry to overhaul death penalty statutes
The Ministry of Justice has commenced a review of the death penalty statutes which stipulate nearly 90 different offenses subject to capital punishment, ministry officials said yesterday.
"We're looking into the death penalty statutes to reduce the number of crimes that can be punished by the penalty, focusing mainly on those offenses which do not involve risking or taking someone's life," Yonhap quoted a ministry official as saying.
The ministry, which has been opposing a move by politicians to abolish capital punishment, came up with the measure to prepare for the possibility that the National Assembly may decide to retain it, upholding the general sentiment still in support of the death penalty.
"As a ministry obliged to protect people's life and body from crimes, we remain cautious on the abolishment of capital punishment, but it is desirable to seek a stricter application of the punishment," the official said.
A bill to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment without parole or pardon is now pending in the parliament, submitted by Uri lawmaker Yoo Ihn-tae and signed by a total of 175 lawmakers.
Putting spurs to the death penalty opponents' drive, the National Human Rights Commission decided Wednesday to recommend to the government that it repeal the death penalty because it undermines human dignity.
However, a survey conducted by the commission in 2003 found 69.5 % supporting the death penalty and another survey by the private Korea Social Opinions Research Institute in 2004 showed 66.3 % were in favor of the death penalty.
According to the ministry, there exist 87 clauses in 17 different laws leading to capital punishment in Korea. Almost 1/2 of them are from the Military Criminal Law, while 15 others belong to Criminal Law, eight to the Additional Punishment Law on Specific Crimes, and 4 from the National Security Law.
Experts have been criticizing the current legal system for excessively applying capital punishment, citing the example of other countries such as the United States and Japan which have only 5 or 6 crimes punished by the death penalty.
The ministry's overhaul plan is seen as a response to such arguments, aiming to revise 55 offense clauses that are not crimes against someone's life but subject to capital punishment.
"We need a thorough study on whether there has been any case in the past in which offenders of those crimes were actually sentenced to death, and whether the changes in our society call for any change in the way we punish offenders of a certain crime," the ministry official said.
In Korea, there are 57 criminal convicts on death row but no executions have taken place since 1998.
(source: The Korea Herald)
Ministry to overhaul death penalty statutes
The Ministry of Justice has commenced a review of the death penalty statutes which stipulate nearly 90 different offenses subject to capital punishment, ministry officials said yesterday.
"We're looking into the death penalty statutes to reduce the number of crimes that can be punished by the penalty, focusing mainly on those offenses which do not involve risking or taking someone's life," Yonhap quoted a ministry official as saying.
The ministry, which has been opposing a move by politicians to abolish capital punishment, came up with the measure to prepare for the possibility that the National Assembly may decide to retain it, upholding the general sentiment still in support of the death penalty.
"As a ministry obliged to protect people's life and body from crimes, we remain cautious on the abolishment of capital punishment, but it is desirable to seek a stricter application of the punishment," the official said.
A bill to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment without parole or pardon is now pending in the parliament, submitted by Uri lawmaker Yoo Ihn-tae and signed by a total of 175 lawmakers.
Putting spurs to the death penalty opponents' drive, the National Human Rights Commission decided Wednesday to recommend to the government that it repeal the death penalty because it undermines human dignity.
However, a survey conducted by the commission in 2003 found 69.5 % supporting the death penalty and another survey by the private Korea Social Opinions Research Institute in 2004 showed 66.3 % were in favor of the death penalty.
According to the ministry, there exist 87 clauses in 17 different laws leading to capital punishment in Korea. Almost 1/2 of them are from the Military Criminal Law, while 15 others belong to Criminal Law, eight to the Additional Punishment Law on Specific Crimes, and 4 from the National Security Law.
Experts have been criticizing the current legal system for excessively applying capital punishment, citing the example of other countries such as the United States and Japan which have only 5 or 6 crimes punished by the death penalty.
The ministry's overhaul plan is seen as a response to such arguments, aiming to revise 55 offense clauses that are not crimes against someone's life but subject to capital punishment.
"We need a thorough study on whether there has been any case in the past in which offenders of those crimes were actually sentenced to death, and whether the changes in our society call for any change in the way we punish offenders of a certain crime," the ministry official said.
In Korea, there are 57 criminal convicts on death row but no executions have taken place since 1998.
(source: The Korea Herald)