So Byeong-cheol: "High Acquittal Rate in 국민참여재판 Leads to Abuse in Sexual Crime Cases... Improvement Needed"

So Byeong-cheol, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The prosecution's appeal rate against verdicts in citizen participation trials has been found to be higher than in general trials. There are concerns that the citizen participation trial system, introduced to increase public trust due to its high acquittal rate, is being exploited in serious crimes such as sexual offenses.

According to an analysis of the '2008?2019 Citizen Participation Trial Performance' data submitted by the Supreme Court to So Byeongcheol, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, the appeal rate for citizen participation trials since the system's introduction in 2008 was 80.3%, which is 16.8% higher than the 63.5% rate for general trials. In particular, the prosecution's appeal rate was 48.6% for citizen participation trials, 20% higher than the 28.6% for general trials.

The reason for the high prosecution appeal rate in citizen participation trials is analyzed to be due to the higher acquittal rate compared to general trials. According to data published last year by the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice, over the 10 years from 2008 to 2017, the acquittal rate for the four major crimes including murder was only 1.4% in general trials, but 8% in citizen participation trials, more than five times higher. In the case of sexual crimes, the acquittal rate was 2.4% in general trials and 18% in citizen participation trials, which is 7.5 times higher.

Lawmaker So Byeongcheol emphasized, "The citizen participation trial system was originally introduced to increase public trust in the judicial system, but the fact that its appeal rate is even higher than that of general trials is noteworthy," adding, "We must not overlook the criticism that the system is being exploited in sexual crime cases due to the high acquittal rate." He continued, "Active measures to protect victims should be considered," and added, "Accurate analysis of the causes and preparation of improvement plans are prerequisites for the original purpose of the citizen participation trial system to be better realized."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.