Jang Jae-won, 27, who was sentenced to life in prison on appeal for raping and killing his former girlfriend, withdrew his Supreme Court appeal, finalizing the sentence.
On the 11th, according to legal sources, Jang submitted a notice of withdrawal of appeal to the Supreme Court on the 14th of last month. Jang had appealed after being sentenced in May to life in prison on appeal for violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (rape and murder).
Prosecutors sought life in prison for Jang at both the first and second trials and did not appeal. The Supreme Court took the case and began reviewing the legal grounds for the appeal, but Jang withdrew his appeal, and the appellate ruling was finalized as is.
Jang is accused of raping his former girlfriend, identified as A, by threatening to kill her at about 6:58 a.m. on Jul. 29 last year at a motel in Gumi, North Gyeongsang. He then put A in a car and drove to Daejeon, and at about 12:10 p.m. the same day, he stabbed and killed her with a weapon on a road in Seo District, near the victim's residence, it was found.
Jang also faces charges of confining A from the motel and illegally filming her body with a mobile phone.
In court, Jang argued that because the rape and murder occurred at different times and places, the case should be judged as a concurrence of the separate crimes of rape and murder, not as the "rape and murder" offense under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act.
However, the first- and second-instance courts did not accept this, recognized the rape and murder charge, and sentenced him to life in prison.