Choi Won-jong speaks with reporters outside the Seongnam Sujeong police station in Gyeonggi as police handed over his case to the prosecutor’s office on Aug. 10, 2023. (YONHAP)
An appeals court on Tuesday upheld a life sentence for 23-year-old Choi Won-jong, the perpetrator behind the shooting spree in Bundang, Gyeonggi, last year.
The Suwon High Court rejected the appeals of the defendant and the prosecution and upheld the life sentence imposed by a lower court. The prosecution had asked for the death penalty for Choi.
“The lower court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment, the most severe punishment short of the death penalty, to prevent recidivism by completely isolating the accused from society and depriving him of his liberty,” the ruling said. “This court, after careful consideration, came to the same conclusion.”
Choi was put on trial after he drove his mother’s car onto a sidewalk near a shopping mall in Bundang, close to Seohyeon Station, on August 3 last year, where he rammed pedestrians before entering a department store and stabbing people. Five people were hit by the car and nine were stabbed.
Two of the five people hit by the car – 20-year-old Kim Hye-bin and 65-year-old Lee Hee-nam – succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
While the court acknowledged that the defendant’s schizophrenia had “impaired his ability to distinguish between right and wrong and to make decisions”, it did not consider this sufficient to reduce his sentence. It noted that there had been no significant problems in his daily life and that the defendant had neither taken medication nor received treatment.
The victims’ relatives expressed their displeasure after Tuesday’s verdict.
“I knew there would be no death sentence,” said the mother of 20-year-old Kim, one of two victims killed in a car crash. “I will appeal and seek a decision from the Supreme Court.”
The husband of 65-year-old Lee also said the verdict showed a lack of justice for innocent citizens.
“It feels like Korea has become a country where a murderer can live even though he takes a life,” he said.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL, SON SUNG-BAE, CHO JUNG-WOO ([email protected])
