The Jeju lawyer killing On the morning of 5 November 1999 a lawyer was found stabbed to death in a car parked on a road in Samdo 2-dong, Jeju City. A wide search found no culprit, and the case became Jeju's best known cold case.
2 Sources 4 Connections No clues left behind It happened at night, so there were no witnesses, and no weapon, fingerprints or footprints were found. The only evidence was blood in the car and on the road. A reward of 5 million won produced nothing.
1 Sources 1 Connections The 15-year limit Murder then carried a 15-year statute of limitations. For this case it ran out on 4 November 2014.
2 Sources 3 Connections The 2015 amendment An amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that abolished the statute of limitations for murder punishable by death. Police and prosecutors argued the clock had stopped while the informant was abroad from the spring of 2014, and the courts did not dispute it.
2 Sources 1 Connections The former gangster who came forward A man in his fifties who had been in a Jeju gang. In 2019 he told the Unanswered Questions team he had been involved in the killing. He later told police he thought the time limit had passed and that explaining how the lawyer died might earn him a reward.
2 Sources 6 Connections The friend he named A fellow gang member the informant said had used the knife. He died in 2014 and never stood trial. The gang boss the informant said had given the order had also died.
2 Sources 1 Connections Unanswered Questions, June 2020 The programme aired an interview with the informant recorded in Cambodia. He said he was told to teach the lawyer a lesson, planned it with his friend, meant only to injure him, and that it went wrong. The police reopened the case after the broadcast.
2 Sources 3 Connections Threats against the producer As the investigation closed in, the informant threatened the producer who had aired his interview. He was convicted of this from the first trial, and an 18-month sentence became final.
3 Sources 2 Connections First trial: not guilty of murder Returned from Cambodia in August 2021 and charged with murder that September, he was acquitted of murder by Jeju District Court, which found no direct evidence.
2 Sources 2 Connections Appeal: twelve years Prosecutors cut up the victim's preserved clothing for new DNA tests, which found nothing that proved the charge. The appeal court in Jeju still pieced together the circumstances, found he had at least accepted that the victim might die, and sentenced him to twelve years.
2 Sources 2 Connections Supreme Court sends it back The Supreme Court found key parts of his account at odds with the facts: when he said he received the order, the gang boss was in prison. It held that he could have learned the weapon's features from the news and the scene from having grown up nearby.
2 Sources 2 Connections Retrial: not guilty again Following the Supreme Court, the court in Jeju acquitted him of murder and upheld only the threats charge. Neither the motive nor anyone behind the killing has been established.
2 Sources 1 Connections tipped off reopened claimed a part in named as the attacker were missing from expired for abolished thought it had run out made targeted the makers of acquitted of murder overturned quashed followed Control map, One finger scrolls the page. Two fingers move or zoom the map.
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Item The Jeju lawyer killing On the morning of 5 November 1999 a lawyer was found stabbed to death in a car parked on a road in Samdo 2-dong, Jeju City. A wide search found no culprit, and the case became Jeju's best known cold case. User contribution ↑ reopened The police reinvestigated after it aired. Sources 2 Work Unanswered Questions, June 2020 The programme aired an interview with the informant recorded in Cambodia. He said he was told to teach the lawyer a lesson, planned it with his friend, meant only to injure him, and that it went wrong. The police reopened the case after the broadcast. User contribution ↑ claimed a part in He says the plan was only to injure. Sources 1 Person The former gangster who came forward A man in his fifties who had been in a Jeju gang. In 2019 he told the Unanswered Questions team he had been involved in the killing. He later told police he thought the time limit had passed and that explaining how the lawyer died might earn him a reward. User contribution Concept The 15-year limit Murder then carried a 15-year statute of limitations. For this case it ran out on 4 November 2014. User contribution ↓ expired for Fifteen years passed with no one found. Sources 1 Item The Jeju lawyer killing On the morning of 5 November 1999 a lawyer was found stabbed to death in a car parked on a road in Samdo 2-dong, Jeju City. A wide search found no culprit, and the case became Jeju's best known cold case. User contribution ↑ abolished Investigators argued the clock had stopped while he was abroad. Sources 1 Concept The 2015 amendment An amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that abolished the statute of limitations for murder punishable by death. Police and prosecutors argued the clock had stopped while the informant was abroad from the spring of 2014, and the courts did not dispute it. User contribution Person The former gangster who came forward A man in his fifties who had been in a Jeju gang. In 2019 he told the Unanswered Questions team he had been involved in the killing. He later told police he thought the time limit had passed and that explaining how the lawyer died might earn him a reward. User contribution ↓ tipped off He contacted the programme first, in 2019. Sources 2 Work Unanswered Questions, June 2020 The programme aired an interview with the informant recorded in Cambodia. He said he was told to teach the lawyer a lesson, planned it with his friend, meant only to injure him, and that it went wrong. The police reopened the case after the broadcast. User contribution ↓ claimed a part in He says the plan was only to injure. Sources 1 Item The Jeju lawyer killing On the morning of 5 November 1999 a lawyer was found stabbed to death in a car parked on a road in Samdo 2-dong, Jeju City. A wide search found no culprit, and the case became Jeju's best known cold case. User contribution Work Unanswered Questions, June 2020 The programme aired an interview with the informant recorded in Cambodia. He said he was told to teach the lawyer a lesson, planned it with his friend, meant only to injure him, and that it went wrong. The police reopened the case after the broadcast. User contribution ↑ tipped off He contacted the programme first, in 2019. Sources 2 Person The former gangster who came forward A man in his fifties who had been in a Jeju gang. In 2019 he told the Unanswered Questions team he had been involved in the killing. He later told police he thought the time limit had passed and that explaining how the lawyer died might earn him a reward. User contribution ↓ reopened The police reinvestigated after it aired. Sources 2 Item The Jeju lawyer killing On the morning of 5 November 1999 a lawyer was found stabbed to death in a car parked on a road in Samdo 2-dong, Jeju City. A wide search found no culprit, and the case became Jeju's best known cold case. User contribution More shared clues (8) AI research is a draft. Read the sources and check the context.
