Ex-Girlfriend's Family Under Protection 'Retaliatory Murder' Lee Seok-jun... Life Sentence Confirmed

1st and 2nd Trials: "An Atrocious Crime Deserving Death Penalty"
Supreme Court: "Life Imprisonment Sentence Not Unjust Due to Motive and Method"

Lee Seok-jun, who killed the family of his ex-girlfriend while under police protection, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Lee Seok-jun, who went to his ex-girlfriend's house, killed her mother and wielded a weapon against her younger sibling, the police have released his personal information. / Photo by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency

The Supreme Court’s 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Cho Jae-yeon) on the 27th upheld the life sentence in the final appeal of Lee, who was charged with retaliatory murder under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and violation of the Personal Information Protection Act.

Lee was prosecuted for visiting the home of his ex-girlfriend A, who was under police protection, on December 10, 2021, killing her mother and seriously injuring A’s 13-year-old younger brother with a weapon. It was investigated that Lee had loaded a stun gun and a weapon into a rental car, pretended to be a delivery worker, and then went to the victim’s home where he killed the victim’s mother.

Five days before the crime, Lee had confined and sexually assaulted A and recorded the incident on his mobile phone. When A learned of this and reported it to the police, Lee attempted to kill her but was thwarted by the responding officers. Afterwards, Lee reportedly obtained A’s address and other information through a private investigation agency with the intent to retaliate against A and others.

The first trial court ruled that there was a need to permanently isolate Lee from society but considered that the death penalty is an extremely exceptional punishment that permanently deprives life, and thus sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The appellate court stated, "He committed an atrocious crime that would justify the death penalty," and added, "There is an opinion that the death penalty should be imposed to ensure life imprisonment without parole, but this is a matter to be resolved by legislation," thereby upholding the first trial’s decision.

The Supreme Court also agreed with the lower courts’ rulings. The bench stated, "Considering the defendant’s age, character, environment, relationship with the victims, motive, means and results of the crime, and circumstances after the crime, as well as various factors related to sentencing conditions shown in the records, the life sentence cannot be deemed excessively unfair."

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