'7-Month-Old Daughter Neglected to Death' 20s Biological Mother Sentenced to 10 Years in Retrial

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] A woman in her 20s who was prosecuted for neglecting her 7-month-old daughter, resulting in the child's death, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the retrial after remand. In the first trial, the woman was sentenced to an indeterminate prison term, divided into long-term and short-term sentences, because she was a minor.

On the 9th, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1-2 (Presiding Judges Eom Sangpil, Shim Dam, and Lee Seungryeon) overturned the appellate court's ruling that sentenced A (20) to 7 years in prison in the retrial for charges including murder, and sentenced her to 10 years in prison.

A was prosecuted for leaving her 7-month-old daughter C alone at their home in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, from May 26 to 31, 2019, causing the child's death.

In the first trial, A, who was a minor at the time, was sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of 15 years long-term and 7 years short-term, while B, her husband, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The prosecution did not appeal, but the defendants did.

The appellate court, following Supreme Court precedents, ruled that since A had become an adult, she could not be sentenced under the Juvenile Act's 'indeterminate sentence,' and considering that the prosecution did not appeal the first trial's verdict, sentenced her to 7 years in prison. B received a 10-year sentence, reducing his term by half.

However, the Supreme Court Grand Bench ruled that "the upper limit of a determinate sentence that the appellate court can impose, which is substantially equivalent to an indeterminate sentence, corresponds to the midpoint between the long-term and short-term sentences of the indeterminate sentence." According to this ruling, the upper limit for A was set at 11 years, the midpoint between the 15-year long-term and 7-year short-term sentences from the first trial. The retrial after remand re-evaluated based on this and sentenced her to 10 years in prison.

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