'Murder Charge Applied to Biological Mother in "Refrigerator Infant Corpse" Case... "Infanticide Sentences Should Be Harsher"'

"Infanticide of Helpless Infants Must Be Severely Punished"
Child Murder Sentences Heavier Than General Homicide

The police applied the charge of murder to a woman in her 30s who killed an infant she gave birth to in Suwon and then stored the body in a refrigerator. Initially, she was arrested on charges of infanticide, but after various criticisms arose, including that the sentence could be reduced compared to general murder charges, the police changed the charge.

However, this case has sparked calls to increase the penalties for infanticide. Rather than merely changing the charges, there are demands to increase the sentencing for infanticide to treat crimes against infants, who should be socially protected, more severely.

The Women and Youth Division of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency announced on the 29th of last month that they had changed the charge against the suspect, the biological mother Go, who was arrested for infanticide, to murder. Go is accused of killing two babies she gave birth to in November 2018 and November 2019, respectively, and storing their bodies in a refrigerator.

Go confessed to the entire crime to the police and was arrested on the 23rd of last month. At that time, the charge applied to her was infanticide.

[Image source=Pixabay]

Infanticide is defined as killing an infant during or immediately after childbirth with a justifiable motive and is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Compared to murder charges under Article 250 of the Criminal Act, which carry the death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for five years or more, the statutory penalty is lighter.

Aside from the issue of sentencing, there were also criticisms that Go killed the babies a day after childbirth, which does not meet the temporal element of "during or immediately after childbirth" stipulated in the infanticide law.

In response, the police, who had been reviewing the charge change, decided to change the charge to murder six days after Go's arrest.

However, this case has led to calls for increasing the penalties for infanticide. Punishing infanticide more leniently than general murder violates the constitutional principle of equality and ignores that infants are defenseless and socially vulnerable individuals who require greater protection.

The reason the penalty for infanticide is light is that the law has not been revised even once since the Criminal Act was enacted in 1953. However, unlike 70 years ago, when some legal abortion procedures and open adoptions are now possible, there is considerable criticism that mitigating punishment for infanticide is inappropriate in the current situation.

A similar example is the crime of child abuse homicide, which is punished more severely than murder. Enacted following the abuse case of the adopted child Jeong-in, the so-called "Jeong-in Law," child abuse homicide punishes those who abuse and kill children with the death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for seven years or more. This is a harsher penalty than the five-year maximum for murder.

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