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SEOUL, South Korea – A man in South Korea who spent 20 years in prison for the murder of a 13-year-old girl was acquitted in a retrial Thursday after the country’s most infamous serial killer confessed to the crime on Thursday. last year.
The acquitted man, Yoon Sung-yeo, 53, was sentenced to life in prison in 1989 on murder charges related to the girl’s death in Hwaseong, a county south of Seoul, the previous year. Yoon spent two decades behind bars before being released on parole in 2009.
He would have lived the rest of his life as an ex-con had it not been for a tabloid twist in what was South Korea’s longest unsolved serial murder case. Last year, the police announced that a man serving a life sentence for raping and murdering his sister-in-law in 1994 had confessed in that case to the so-called Hwaseong serial killings, in which 10 women were found brutally murdered around. the county from 1986 to 1991.
The confessed serial killer, Lee Chun-jae, also admitted to killing four other people, including the 13-year-old girl. Mr. Yoon immediately demanded a new trial.
Park Jeong-jae, a district court judge in Suwon, south of Seoul, said in his ruling on Mr. Yoon’s case on Thursday: “It was a wrong verdict based on flawed investigations.”
“I, as a member of the Judiciary, apologize to the accused for the fact that the Judiciary has not duly fulfilled its role as the last bastion of human rights,” he added.
When the verdict was announced, Yoon’s supporters erupted in applause and presented him with flowers. Prosecutors decided not to appeal the ruling.
“I hope that more people are not unfairly accused, like me,” Yoon told reporters on Thursday.
For decades, the Hwaseong killings terrified South Koreans. The victims, ages 7 to 71, were often strangled to death after being raped. Their bodies were found with their mouths stuffed with their own stockings, bras or socks. Some of the bodies were mutilated with umbrellas, forks or razors.
“I still don’t know why I did what I did,” Lee said last month, when he testified during Yoon’s retrial. “I was not thinking or planning. I committed crimes like a moth drawn to a flame. “
A total of two million policemen were mobilized to search for the killer over the years, and more than 21,000 men were questioned in the case. The murders also inspired the 2003 hit film “Memories of Murder.”
The cases remained unsolved until last year, when advances in DNA analysis allowed forensic experts to extract samples from some of the evidence collected at crime scenes. The samples matched those of Mr. Lee, who later began to confess to the murders.
During Mr. Yoon’s retrial, one of the former police detectives who had investigated his case admitted that Mr. Yoon had been beaten and deprived of sleep for three days when he was forced to confess. On Thursday, the court said the case against Mr. Yoon had been based on illegal detention and torture and “there is no reliable evidence.”
Mr. Lee’s confession, however, was “very credible,” he said.
The National Police Agency issued a statement on Thursday apologizing for “stigmatizing an innocent young man as a murderer.”
“We bow our heads deeply in apology for him and his family,” he said.
Mr. Yoon’s lawyers said that the original police investigation had verged on absurdity: the police argued that Mr. Yoon had entered the home of the murdered girl by climbing a wall. But when he was taken there to recreate the crime scene, Mr. Yoon, who suffered from polio as a child and walks with a limp, was unable to climb the wall.
Mr. Yoon’s argument that he was tortured into confessing was not admissible during his original trial.
When Mr. Lee appeared as a witness during Mr. Yoon’s retrial in November, he also testified that the police investigation had been of poor quality.
Before continuing his killing spree in 1986, police questioned him about a rape, but he was released when officers decided not to pursue the case, he said. At one point, he said he was wearing the watch of one of his victims when police questioned him as part of their investigation into the Hwaseong killings. Again, he was free.
“I still don’t understand how it took them so long to catch me,” said Lee, 57. “The police detectives questioned me several times, but they always asked about my friends and neighbors, but never seriously about me.”
Police officers said that Mr. Lee may have decided to cooperate with them after the DNA analysis because he no longer faced additional criminal charges. The 15-year statute of limitations on the last of Hwaseong’s murders expired in 2006. But his chances of parole have evaporated.
Lee said he would rather stay in prison than be released on parole, citing the case of Cho Doo-soon, who was released from prison this month after serving 12 years in prison for the rape of an 8-year-old girl. . For months before his release, the South Koreans issued death threats against Mr. Cho, forcing the police to increase security around his home.
“It’s not like I wouldn’t have thought about what life would be like if I was released on parole,” Lee said last month. “But I prefer to stay in prison. I heard how people were reacting to Cho Doo-soon’s release. I can imagine what it would be like if they found out I’m dating. “
