The statute of limitations on murder cases was abolished. That is, the enactment of the so-called Taewan Law was passed on July 24th. Taewan, whom the law is named after, was doused with sulfuric acid all over his body from an unknown assailant in an alley in Daegu on May 20th, 1999. At age 6, he lost his life, after 49 days of struggling against the injuries. This case was about to remain permanently unsolved because of the prime suspect’s non-prosecution due to a lack of evidence and another key suspect’s suicide after a protest of his innocence. Later, Congressman Seo Yeong-gyo of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy proposed a law amendment, which was the abolishment of the statute of limitations on murder cases. In the end, the law amendment was passed, but unfortunately the statutes of limitations for the Daegu sulfuric acid attack case had expired before the revisal and couldn’t be back-dated.
  Statutes of limitations are the periods of time when criminal facts can be admitted. It was in effect because as time passes, the evidence can be damaged, the necessity of punishment decreases, and the long-term investigation costs increase. These statutes of limitations should’ve been abolished because of the development of scientific investigations. With the advancement of scientific investigation techniques, the evidence that couldn’t elicit the truth in the past turns into the key clue that solves the unsolved cases. There are actual cases that have been solved after time passed, and among those, the Daejeon Daeseongdong apartment parking lot murder case is a representative case. The key clue that made it possible to arrest the criminal after eight years was a tiny piece of a fingerprint. At the time, it was impossible to identify damaged fingerprints, but it became possible in the mid 2000’s. Moreover, various scientific investigation technologies are developing day by day, so the revision of the criminal procedure act in this regard is welcomed. However, this amendment applied only to crimes against humanity at first. The intentions for accidental homicides are unprovable, so the statute of  limitations for those stayed the same.
  In accordance with the abolishment, the National Police Agency officially organized an Unsolved Case Investigation Team. The unsolved case task forces are staffed with the most experienced officers. 95% of murder cases are solved within one year, but if a case remains unsolved even after five years, the task force takes over the case and continues to investigate for 5 more years. If it is still unsolved after 10 years, it will be reviewed by a judging committee, consisting of forensic doctors and retired detectives, and it will be designated as a long-term unsolved case. For this long-term unsolved case, they stop the normal investigation and focus on retaining case-related evidence and records. They only resume the investigation if fresh intelligence or a new witness is acquired.
  According to the National Police Agency, 329 important unsolved cases out of about 3,200 were solved in the past five years due to the development of the scientific investigation. There are 2,800 cases that are still waiting to be solved, and the abolishment should give potential criminals a deep-rooted message that there are no perfect crimes.

By Min Tae-kwan
tk36@cbnu.ac.kr