By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
A death penalty for serial killer Kang Ho-soon was confirmed Tuesday as he decided not to appeal the case to the top court.
The Seoul High Court said that Kang did not submit a written appeal within the designated time, so his sentence of capital punishment, which the court handed down on July 23, was confirmed.
An accused who denies his or her guilt in a criminal case is required to submit an appeal within one week from sentencing, or the punishment is confirmed.
The 39-year-old was sentenced to capital punishment by a lower court and the high court for kidnapping and killing 10 women, including his wife and mother-in-law, between September 2006 and December last year.
He denied the killing of his family members and appealed to the high court, which did not accept his claim.
Including Kang, the number of convicts on death row in Korea now tops 60. This year, two other criminals were also given capital punishment - a 40-year-old man who kidnapped and killed two elementary schoolgirls in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, and a 31-year-old man who set fire to a cheap accommodation in southern Seoul, claiming six lives.