Public outrage grows after convicted killer gets life sentence

“A killer who chopped up an innocent woman into 385 pieces was sentenced to life in prison. So should a killer who cuts up a body into 10 pieces be sentenced to 20 years?”

Baek Hyeon-jeong, 34, a manager at A Footstep, a civic group for rooting out child sex offenders, was outraged to hear that Oh Won-chun, 42, was sentenced to life in his second trial, saying, “This means that a heinous killer can avoid the death penalty.”

Public anger grew after hearing the news, with many blasting the court for handing out a lenient ruling despite recent outrage against those committing brutal crimes.

Lee Yong-woo, president of the Korean Criminal Victim Association, said, “The unacceptable ruling gives unbearable pain to many families of crime victims as well as the family of the 20-something woman (whom Oh killed) in Suwon.”

The Council for the Movement to Recover Humanity said, “We fear that distrust of the court could further increase.” The civic group will host a demonstration on “a society without violence” at Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul at 2 p.m. Sunday to protest the life sentence meted down for the killer.

The Internet was abuzz with outrage over the verdict. Tweettrend, a Twitter search engine, said the number of messages mentioning Oh reached around 20 until Wednesday but jumped to more than 1,000 Thursday.

Most posts lamented the difficulty in accepting why he got a relatively lighter punishment, with one user saying, "The court said it would deal a hard blow to heinous crimes but only gave a slap on the wrist.”

Online users launched a petition drive urging that Oh get capital punishment. A message titled, “We strongly request the death penalty for Oh Won-chun,” was posted on the online portal Daum. Around 130 threads were attached to support the writer just two hours after it was posted.

People were enraged after the court gave the lighter sentence in the second trial, with one person saying, “It`s hard to say Oh sold human flesh.” Though Oh did not trade human flesh, another said, he deserves the death penalty for his cruelty. “We`re now feeding Oh with taxpayers’ money,” another Internet user said, adding, “The ruling saved him twice but killed the victim’s relatives twice.”

becom@donga.com