A group of 92 South Korean legislators presented a...

A group of 92 South Korean legislators presented a bill to the National Assembly that called for capital punishment sentences to be abolished and be replaced with life terms in prison sentences. This was the first time South Korean legislators supported a bill to end the death penalty, one of the most contentious issues in the country. The proposed law intensified a decade-long movement to outlaw capital punishment - at a time when the country is experiencing a surge of civic activism. At the very least, the bill's proponents expected the bill to stimulate public debate on an issue that, until recently, had been almost entirely absent in the nation. Yoo Jay Kun, a key lawmaker responsible for introducing the bill, recalled, "Discussion of this matter used to be taboo." Both ruling and opposition party lawmakers, led by Rep. Chyung Dai-chul, had put forward the bill to eliminate capital punishment. The bill challenged a 1996 ruling by the Constitutional Court that found the capital punishment system compatible with the Korean Constitution. Abolitionists were encouraged that no death-row inmate has been executed since Kim Dae Jung came to power in February 1998. Lawyer Lee Sang Hyuk, who heads the Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, said that a growing number of South Koreans concurred with the popular Western view that executing murderers does little or nothing to deter potential killers. Lee Sang Hyuk added he believed that the president supported the abolition campaign but was fearful of voicing his opinion on the matter publicly. He said that, "Talking about the death penalty can still be a minus for one's political career." When Kim Jin Tae, 29, who has spent eight years on death row, received news about the proposed legislation, he wrote a letter to Lee Sang Hyuk stating, "I can't even begin to express how grateful I am."