“I am reducing your sentence because you are weak-minded”… This kind of heated judgment doesn't work anymore.

Despite a 10-year history of psychiatric treatment,
Court: “Sentence cannot be commuted due to mental illness”

There are suspects who claim to have their sentences reduced on the grounds that they suffer from mental illness after committing violent crimes. However, in recent courts, arguments for reduced sentences based on so-called ‘mental and physical weakness’ are not working well.

On the 12th, the 11th Criminal Division of the Western District Court (Chief Judge Bae Seong-joong) sentenced Mr. Choi (45), a Korean American of American nationality, to three years in prison, who was indicted on charges of special injury. In January of this year, he was put on trial on charges of swinging a knife at a man in his 20s whom he first saw in an alley in Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, causing injuries that required treatment for three years.

In this trial, which was held as a public participation trial, seven ordinary jurors in court presented a verdict of guilt or innocence and sentencing opinions for Mr. Choi.

During the trial, it was revealed that the defendant, Mr. Choi, had been treated for schizophrenia 114 times since 2015. In his final argument, Mr. Choi's lawyer appealed for a reduced sentence, saying, "He has been treated for a long history of mental illness, and because he is a foreigner, there are aspects of him that have been neglected." However, all seven jurors found him guilty. Of these, six recommended three years in prison and one recommended five years in prison.

The court also ruled, “The defendant was treated for a long period of time due to mental illness, and it appears that the illness influenced the crime,” but also ruled, “The crime is serious because he prepared a weapon in a place where many people go and inflicted injuries on an unknown victim.”

Previously, a man in his 80s who stabbed a man in his 80s with a weapon on the streets of Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul in 2022 was found to have a mental illness called ‘paranoia,’ but the court did not recognize mental and physical weakness, saying, ‘He is judged to have the ability to discern.’

Jo Seong-geun, a lawyer at Daeryun Law Firm, said, “The negative view of reducing sentences for mentally and physically weak people is becoming stronger, and there is a trend of not acknowledging claims of mental and physical impairment for violent crimes.”

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