The family of a teenage girl killed in Gwangju expressed anguish Wednesday after a court sentenced her killer to life imprisonment, rejecting their calls for the death penalty.
“Today's ruling has killed our family once more,” a family member of victim Lee Chae-won told reporters after the sentence was handed down.
The Gwangju District Court found Jang Yoon-gi, 23, guilty of all charges in the killing of Lee, 16, during an attempted sexual assault in May. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty.
“I'm sorry I couldn't keep the promise I made to Chae-won,” the family member said.
“The first page of my maternity notebook has the date May 5, 2009, written on it,” she recalled. “That was the day I first heard Chae-won's heartbeat, the greatest blessing and hope of my life.”
“May 5, 2026, was also the day my precious child met such a horrific end,” she said. “I raised her for 17 years, cherishing her more than anything in the world. Even now, my heart stops when I think about why she had to leave us in such a brutal way.”
She had been staging a one-person protest outside the court since Monday, calling for Jang to receive the death penalty. Her sign read, “Dear judge, please hand down a death sentence to killer Jang Yoon-gi.”
A petition calling for the maximum sentence for Jang, signed by nearly 100,000 people, was also submitted to the court.
Jang killed Lee at around 12:10 a.m. on May 5 on a path in Gwangju, while attempting to sexually assault her. He also attacked a male high school student who rushed to help after hearing her screams.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty at Jang’s final hearing on Aug. 31.
In explaining its sentence, the court cited South Korea’s status as a de facto abolitionist country and relevant Supreme Court precedents.
shwang9@heraldcorp.com