By Kim Eun-ji
Two men were reconfirmed guilty over the death of a female college student caused by the forced drink of a lethal amount of alcohol in 2010.
However, the appeals panel of the Cheongju District Court halved the lower court’s sentence to six-months imprisonment and one-year probation for the two 24-year-olds, surnamed Ahn and Park, June 29. A mandatory social service order was cut to 135 hours from 169.
The panel partially accepted the claim of the defendants that alcohol could not have caused her death in view of the victim’s blood alcohol level of 0.157 percent.
The court, however, said the victim was not used to drinking and she could have died from a lower blood alcohol level compared to others as she was small at 153 centimeters and weighed 36 kilograms.
“The victim drank 620 milliliters of soju in 27 minutes, so her highest blood alcohol level would have been higher than 0.157 percent,” the court said.
Also, it was predictable that such situation might have happened because the victim had passed out in the bathroom, said the court.
The two forced freshmen, including 20-year-old Keum, to drink at a meeting in April 2010, every time they did not know the name of their seniors. Keum was found dead in her lodging room the next morning.