SOUTH KOREA COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY

February 25, 2010: South Korea’s highest court upheld the death penalty, 13 years after the last execution and a national debate on whether to scrap capital punishment led to a moratorium.
The Justice Department has put a stay on death row cases since 23 were executed at the end of 1997, in deference to a parliamentary debate on the statutory repeal of capital punishment that began formally earlier that year.
A fisherman convicted of killing four tourists at sea in 2007 brought the appeal to the Constitutional Court, saying capital punishment infringed on the constitutional guarantee of human dignity.
The court in a five-to-four decision said the constitution allowed for the death penalty and it would be an over-interpretation to say its provision on the right to life superseded capital punishment. The court needed a six-judge majority to strike down the death penalty.
The court added however that it recognized the death penalty could be subject to errors and abuse in enforcement and that parliament, which had the power to repeal the punishment, was the proper forum for any debate or change.
There have been steady calls for the abolishment of capital punishment led in part by late former President Kim Dae-jung, who was sentenced to death for treason under a military ruler but had his sentence commuted. He was in office from 1998 to 2003. (Sources: Reuters, 25/02/2010)