South Korea has become one of the nations which have virtually abolished capital punishment as it has not carried out a single execution over the past 10 years. Officials from Amnesty International's Korean branch, civic and religious organizations gathered Wednesday to declare South Korea as a de facto abolitionist country.
The last 23 executions took place in December, 1997 under the then President Kim Young-sam's administration. Eighteen years have passed since a constitutional petition was first filed against the death penalty, which was followed by numerous similar petitions and appeals from mainly civic bodies.
Currently, 133 countries around the world have already done away with the punishment while the United Nations and other relevant international organization have been calling for the abolishment at the earliest date possible. Being listed as a de facto abolitionist nation does not necessarily mean the total legal removal of the death penalty. South Korea still has 64 criminals who have received the death sentence.
The reason why we call for abolishment is simple: No one has the right to take away another's life given from heaven. Human judgment isn't perfect. Once someone is executed, there is no way to reverse this even if the person is later found to be innocent. Some say capital punishment should be applied to heinous criminals, but research shows that this has no effect in preventing intolerable crimes. Others claim the need to protect the human rights of the bereaved families of the victims. But is killing the perpetrators promoting their rights?
Real peace may come from forgiving. Ko Jeong-won who lost his family _ mother, wife and son - to serial killer You Yeong-cheol suffered seemingly insurmountable agony, but decided on forgiveness and has been calling for abolition of the death penalty, describing it as a contradiction under which people kill other people.
A total of 902 people have been executed since the establishment of the Korean government in 1948 up to 1997 including those who took the blame for other criminals. Former President Kim Dae-jung, given the death sentence in 1980 by the then military regime, asserted that capital punishment has not curbed the rise in crime. Rather, he said during a keynote speech on Wednesday, the system has failed to prevent crime and tended to take innocent lives through bad judgment.
The bill for the abolition of the death penalty is now pending at the National Assembly with 175 lawmakers' signatures. But there was only one hearing on it in 2005. The Assembly should deal with the bill as soon as possible, without postponing it to the next session.