Inje Hiker 'Random Murder' 20s, Life Sentence Confirmed by Supreme Court

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The life sentence of a man in his 20s, who was charged with stabbing and killing a man in his 50s whom he did not even know, has been confirmed.

On the 21st, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dongwon) upheld the original sentence of life imprisonment in the final appeal trial against Lee, who was prosecuted for murder.

Lee was prosecuted for stabbing and killing Han (58) dozens of times with a weapon at the entrance of a hiking trail in Buk-myeon, Inje-gun, on July 11 last year. Investigations revealed that Lee had planned a series of murders. Lee stated, "People should be reminded that they can die from a single act of arrogance or rudeness," and referred to the 'Jang Daeho case,' known as the 'Hangang torso murder case,' as a groundbreaking example.

The first trial court sentenced Lee to life imprisonment and ordered the attachment of an electronic tracking device for 20 years, stating, "This was a senseless murder of a victim whom the defendant did not even know, committed in a cruel manner, making it highly condemnable."

The second trial court also upheld the first trial's sentence, stating, "The defendant killed the victim to satisfy a long-standing, objectively incomprehensible desire to kill and to derive pleasure from it, making the nature of the crime very serious." The defense's claim of mental illness was rejected, as it was found that "since late elementary school, the defendant thought killing people was easier than anything else in the world and wanted to make it a profession, nurturing the desire to kill continuously into adulthood, and psychiatric evaluation showed no diagnosis."

The Supreme Court's judgment on the day was no different. The court stated, "Considering various sentencing factors such as the defendant's age, character, environment, and relationship with the victim, even taking into account the circumstances argued in the appeal, it cannot be said that the first trial court's decision to sentence the defendant to life imprisonment and the appellate court's maintenance of that sentence were unjust."

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