Capital punishment is a legal penalty in South Korea. As of December 2012, there were at least 60 people on death row in South Korea.[1] The method of execution is hanging.
However, there has been an informal moratorium on executions since PresidentKim Dae-jung took office in 1998. There have been no executions in the country since December 1997.
Under the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897), capital punishment was a legal penalty; the Joseon penal code was based on that of Ming dynasty China, with the primary two methods of execution being beheading and strangulation, although lingering death by slow slicing (neungji-cheocham, 능지처참) was reserved for particularly serious offences, whereas execution by drinking poison (sasa, 사사) was a leniency granted to royalty and high-ranking officials.[2] The purpose of executions was to cause reactions and stop crimes. Heads of executed people were displayed to the public both to serve as public warning and enforce military courtesy. However, bodies of executed people were allowed funeral proceedings.[3]
Currently, the Penal Code of South Korea regulates executions as a form of punishment for some crimes according to the Criminal Law section 41. Those crimes include: Rebellion (Section 87), Conspiracy with foreign countries (Section 92), homicide (Section 250), robbery-homicide (Section 338), and other 12 sections. People under 18 cannot be executed according to Juvenile Law (Section 59, Juvenile Law).[4]
Moratorium
In February 1998, then-president Kim Dae-jung enacted a moratorium on executions. This moratorium is still in effect as of 2024.[5] Thus, executions in Korea are considered to be abolished de facto.[6] The last executions took place in December 1997, when 23 people (each of whom had murdered at least 2 people) were put to death.[7][8] However, there are still at least 60 people with a death sentence, as of 2013.[1]
Executions are still a matter of debate.[8] People have called for executions for violent crimes, especially those involving rape of minors.[9]
A 2017 poll found younger South Koreans are more likely to support capital punishment than older ones. People in their 20s were the most supportive at 62.6 percent.[10][11]
According to a survey of 1,000 adults by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in October 2018, 79.7% of the Korean citizens were supportive of the death penalty.[12] When asked to select between life without parole and the death penalty, approximately 70% chose life imprisonment.[12]
In 2021, Ipsos conducted a multinational online survey on capital punishment among 55 countries. The poll showed 74% of South Korea citizens favoring the death penalty, tied with Japan and more than any other of the surveyed countries, including the United States (67%).[13]
A sentence of death is made extinct after 30 years. In 2023, the government proposed a law to remove the extinction period in response to the case of Won, Korea's longest-serving death-row inmate, who was convicted of arson and manslaughter in November 1993 and whose sentence would otherwise have been revoked.[14]
Notable cases
Kang Ho-sun was convicted of kidnapping and killing eight women between 2006 and 2008, and of burning to death his wife and mother-in-law in 2005. Kang, 38, was arrested in January for the murder of a female college student and later confessed to killing and secretly burying seven other women.[15] Other death row inmates include Yoo Young-chul and members of the Chijon family, a former gang of cannibals.
In March 2010, in contrast to prior speculations, Minister Lee Kwi-nam hinted that the executions of death row inmates will resume, breaking the virtual 13-year moratorium.[16] The remarks came a few days after Kim Kil-tae, who raped and murdered a 15-year-old schoolgirl, was convicted. However, this did not happen. In December 2010, Kim's death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment and the prosecutors did not appeal to the Supreme Court.[17]
On August 27, 2015, the Supreme Court sentenced a man called 'Jang Jae-jin' to death for multiple murder and rape. On 27 November 2019, in the most recent case, a specially conducted jury trial, by a majority decision of 8–1, decided to sentence a 42-year-old man with schizophrenia named 'Ahn In-deuk' to death for committing mass arson and murder in a case which killed 5 people and injured 17 others in April of that same year. Although the man had schizophrenia, the Changwon District Court decided that he had shown a high level of premeditation and planning, as well as a lack of repentance from the defendant, his high possibility of reoffending and the tragedy he brought upon the victims and the five deceased's families.[18]
On February 19, 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence passed on a man known by the surname 'Lim', a 24-year-old army sergeant who killed five fellow soldiers and injured seven others in a shooting rampage near the border with North Korea in 2014. He became the 361st person on death row in South Korea. According to Yonhap, of the 361 people on death row, 45, including Lim, were soldiers.[19][20]
In June 2022, 53-year-old Kwon Jae-chan was sentenced to death for murdering two people, a woman in her fifties and a man in his forties.[21] In January 2023, the Daejeon High Court allowed the prosecution's appeal and sentenced a 28-year-old to death after being convicted of the murder a 42-year-old fellow inmate at Gongju Correctional Institution, where the 28-year-old unnamed convict was already serving a sentence of life imprisonment for a 2019 robbery-murder case involving the theft of 400 grams of gold and a sedan. The High Court found the district court's sentencing of the 28-year-old to a second life term was pointless and that the killer, having shown no reformation despite being awarded a life sentence for his first homicide, should be given the harsher penalty of death to deter any future violence within South Korean prisons.[22]
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term capital refers to execution by beheading, but executions are carried out by many methods, including hanging, shooting, lethal injection, stoning, electrocution, and gassing.
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty throughout the country at the federal level, in 27 states, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 7, as well as the federal government and military, subject to moratoriums.
Capital punishment is not allowed to be carried out in the U.S. state of California, due to both a standing 2006 federal court order against the practice and a 2019 moratorium on executions ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. The litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Should the moratorium end and the freeze concluded, executions could resume under the current state law.
Capital punishment is one of two possible penalties for aggravated murder in the U.S. state of Oregon, with it being required by the Constitution of Oregon.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Belarus. At least one execution was carried out in the country in 2022.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Japan. The Penal Code of Japan and several laws list 14 capital crimes. In practice, though, it is applied only for aggravated murder. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and take place at one of the seven execution chambers located in major cities across the country. The only crime punishable by a mandatory death sentence is instigation of foreign aggression.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Pakistan. Although there have been numerous amendments to the Constitution, there is yet to be a provision prohibiting the death penalty as a punitive remedy.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Malaysian law.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Jamaica. Currently, the only crime punishable by death is aggravated murder. The method of execution is hanging. Jamaica was originally a British colony. The last person executed in Jamaica was Nathan Foster, who was convicted of murder and hanged in 1988. The Jamaican Parliament had placed a moratorium on the death penalty until 2009, when it was lifted. Since 2009, capital punishment is legal and executions in Jamaica could resume; however, there have been no executions since.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arizona. After the execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, executions were temporarily suspended but resumed in 2022. On January 23, 2023, newly inaugurated governor Katie Hobbs ordered a review of death penalty protocols and in light of that, newly inaugurated attorney general Kris Mayes issued a hold on any executions in the state.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Pennsylvania. Despite remaining a legal penalty, there have been no executions in Pennsylvania since 1999, and only three since 1976. In February 2015, Governor Tom Wolf announced a formal moratorium on executions that is still in effect as of 2023, with incumbent Governor Josh Shapiro continuing Wolf's moratorium. However, capital crimes are still prosecuted and death warrants are still issued.
Capital punishment remains a legal penalty for multiple crimes in the Gambia. However, the country has taken recent steps towards abolishing the death penalty.
Capital punishment in Malawi is a legal punishment for certain crimes. The country abolished the death penalty following a Malawian Supreme Court ruling in 2021, but it was soon reinstated. However, the country is currently under a death penalty moratorium, which has been in place since the latest execution in 1992.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in South Sudan. It is covered under the Penal Code Act of South Sudan and allows for executions of individuals in the event of convictions for numerous crimes, including murder and terrorism. The sentences can be imposed by either civilian courts or the military. Between 2011 and 2018, at least 140 people have been put to death in South Sudan with hundreds more awaiting their sentence on death row, though due to a lack of reporting within the country exact numbers remain unknown. The country has faced criticism from international rights groups and multinational organizations for its use of capital punishment on juveniles. Not a party to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, South Sudan remains one of sub-Saharan Africa's largest users of the death penalty.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the Comoros. Currently, however, the country has a de facto moratorium in place; although the death penalty remains in the nation's penal code, it has not been used since the 1990s.
Capital punishment in Lesotho is legal. However, despite not having any official death penalty moratorium in place, the country has not carried out any executions since the 1990s and is therefore considered de facto abolitionist.
Capital punishment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is legal; however, the nation has not carried out any executions since 2003, meaning that the country experienced a de facto moratorium on the death penalty from their latest executions in 2003 until March 2024.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Cameroon. However, the country not carried out any official executions since 1997, making it de facto abolitionist, since it also has a moratorium.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Uganda. The death penalty was likely last carried out in 1999, although some sources say the last execution in Uganda took place in 2005. Regardless, Uganda is interchangeably considered a retentionist state with regard to capital punishment, due to absence of "an established practice or policy against carrying out executions," as well as a de facto abolitionist state due to the lack of any executions for over one decade.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland. Despite its legality, no executions have been carried out since 1983. Therefore, Eswatini is classified as "abolitionist in practice."
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