Life sentence finalized for killer in Sillim rampage

34-year-old Cho Seon is being transferred to Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office from Seoul Gwanak Police Station on July 28, 2023. (Yonhap)

The Supreme Court on Thursday finalized life imprisonment for 34-year-old Cho Seon who carried out a stabbing rampage near Seoul's Sillim Station in 2023, leaving one person dead and three others injured.

The top court upheld lower courts' decision to sentence Cho to life in prison, finding him guilty on multiple charges including murder, attempted murder and contempt. The court also ordered him to be tracked via an electronic ankle monitor for 30 years, with or without parole.

"(The lower courts') rulings cannot be seen as unfair considering several records including the defendant's age, tendency and the environment (he was in), his relationship with the victims, the motive behind his crimes as well as his actions after committing the crimes," the top court said in its verdict.

The prosecution had requested the death penalty for Cho, saying he has not shown any signs of remorse.

Cho stabbed a man in his 20s, resulting in the man's death, and injured three other men in their 30s near Sillim Station in Gwanak-gu, southern Seoul, on July 21, 2023. He was captured at the scene immediately after the crime and was arrested two days later. Cho had never met his victims.

Following his arrest, Cho initially confessed to investigators that he had committed the crime on purpose due to his "inferiority complex." But he later claimed he had suffered from delusions at the time of his crime and was mentally unfit to stand in court during his trials.

A lower court had partially accepted Choi's claims that he had suffered from delusions, but pointed out that his crimes were "extremely violent and heinous" regardless of the defendant's mental state.

Cho's crime was followed by another stabbing rampage targeting strangers in Bundang, south of Seoul, two weeks later.

By Jung Min-kyung(mkjung@heraldcorp.com)