Oct. 18, 2018. The petition board of the presidential office was in an uproar over the killing of a part-time worker at an internet cafe in Seoul's Gangseo District four days earlier.
A petition posted the previous day, titled "The Gangseo internet cafe murder. Another suspect claiming diminished mental capacity," drew 360,000 signatures by 6 p.m. that day — a single day. That was more than 100,000 above the 200,000 threshold that required an official response from the presidential office.
The petitioner called for tougher punishment, asking, "How long must punishment be weakened by words like depression, mental illness and diminished mental capacity?" Signatures continued to accumulate, and the total surpassed 1 million.
A quarrel over "rude service" ends in a knife attack on a 20-year-old part-timer
The crime occurred at about 8:13 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2018, at an internet cafe in Naebalsan-dong, Gangseo District, Seoul. Kim Sung-soo, then 29, got into an altercation with Shin, a 20-year-old part-time employee at the cafe, complaining that tables had not been cleared properly and that the service was rude.
The dispute appeared to have been settled after police arrived and defused the situation, but Kim left the scene, retrieved a knife and returned. When he encountered Shin on an escalator in the building housing the internet cafe, he stabbed him repeatedly. Shin died after suffering 32 stab wounds, mainly to the face and neck. Kim was arrested after police, who responded again, used a Taser on him.
The doctor who treated Shin wrote on a personal blog that all of the wounds were to the neck, face and hands, and that each one was deep enough to destroy the shape of the tissue. "It is hard for a human being to do that to another human being. But the assailant stabbed with the resolve to push the blade all the way in," the doctor wrote.
The doctor added that having depression may not have been Kim's fault, but noted pointedly, "Depression did not put the knife in his hand."
Outrage over a depression diagnosis; petition passes 1 million
What inflamed public opinion was Kim's history of depression. Shortly after the killing, Kim's family submitted to police a medical certificate stating that he was taking medication for depression, and it emerged that Kim himself had told investigators he had suffered from depression for more than a decade and had been on medication.
The petitioner argued that because sentences can be reduced on grounds of diminished mental capacity, someone with bad intentions could obtain a prescription for depression medication and commit crimes recklessly. "Shouldn't punishment be stronger than it is now?" the petition said.
Some saw the concern as overblown. The case was still at an early stage of the police investigation, with no indictment, let alone a first-ruling verdict, and it was unclear whether the mere fact of taking medication for depression would be accepted in court as grounds for diminished mental capacity.
Even so, the intensity of public anger from the outset has been attributed to memories of past rulings in which claims of diminished mental capacity after violent crimes led to light sentences or reduced terms, and to distrust of the judiciary.
Kim underwent a psychiatric evaluation for about a month, beginning on Oct. 22, at the National Forensic Psychiatric Hospital's treatment and custody facility in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province. In the process, Article 10 of the Criminal Act, which allows sentences to be reduced for those with diminished mental capacity, also became a point of public contention. Signatures on the petition opposing lighter punishment on grounds of diminished mental capacity surpassed 1 million.
Prosecutors sought death penalty; court says he must be isolated from society for a long time
Prosecutors indicted Kim on murder charges and detained him, and sought the death penalty at the final hearing. His younger brother, who was with him, was indicted without detention on charges of joint assault. Prosecutors concluded that the brother took part in the assault but did not know that Kim was carrying a knife. The brother denied the charge, saying he had only grabbed Shin and tried to pull him away to stop the scuffle.
The first-instance court sentenced Kim to 30 years in prison and acquitted his brother. Of Kim, the court said the method of the crime was extremely cruel and that no particular motive could be found beyond a quarrel over a trivial matter. "The victim, who was living diligently and dreaming of his future, suffered fatal injuries and died without even knowing why," the court said.
The court also said that, given the circumstances and method of the crime, there was a risk of reoffending, and that even after the completion of his sentence he would be highly likely to display latent aggression or violent tendencies when treated unfairly or provoked to anger.
As for the brother, the court viewed his act of grabbing Shin as an attempt to break up the fight. "He did not engage in the typical conduct of someone assisting an assailant's violence," the court said, adding that he could be seen as having acted in his own way to stop a fight that broke out suddenly, in a state of confusion.
Kim filed an appeal to the Supreme Court after the appellate ruling but withdrew it himself, and the 30-year sentence was finalized. He is serving his term at Daegu Prison and is scheduled for release in 2048, when he will be 59.
