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Itaewon murder case: Peterson found to be guilty after 19 years

Itaewon murder case: Peterson found to be guilty after 19 years

Posted January. 30, 2016 08:00,   

Updated January. 30, 2016 08:10

한국어

Arthur Peterson was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday for stabbing university student Cho Joong-pil to death in a Burger King toilet in Itaewon in 1997. That was the maximum sentence for Peterson who was 17 when he killed Cho. The 27 criminal consensus division (head judge: Shim Gyu-hong) of the Seoul Central District Court ruled that "Peterson's testimony that Edward Lee who was at the crime scene killed Cho has no credibility whereas Lee's testimony that it was Peterson who killed Cho is reliable.

The reason why it took 19 years for this case to be closed is the incomplete investigation of the prosecution. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the US Forces in Korea started an investigation immediately, arrested Peterson as a suspect and handed him over to Korea. However, the prosecution indicted Lee for the murder instead of Peterson, but Lee was found to be innocent in the Supreme Court next year. The prosecution made another mistake by not extending the suspension period on Cho after an expiration in 1999, allowing him flee to the US.

In this murder case, there were only two suspects: Lee and Peterson. However, the prosecution did not re-open the case for 10 years after Lee was released in 1998 until 2009 when a movie, 'Itaewon Murder Case', was released. The prosecution demanded that the US Ministry of Justice bring Peterson to Korea as a criminal. In 2011, Peterson was arrested in the US and sent to Korea. Otherwise, this case would have remained unsolved.

The court considered Lee to be an accomplice because although he did not kill the victim, he did encourage Peterson to test if he had the guts to kill someone. However, Lee had already been accused of murder and released, and the prohibition against double jeopardy does not allow the court to indict Lee again. This is also due to the prosecution's incompetency that failed to pick out the executor of the murder.

A university student went to Itaewon with his girlfriend and got stabbed to death by an American teenager without any reason. The parents of the victim had to live 19 years in fury without knowing who killed their son. Although late, fortunately justice was finally served.



송평인기자 pisong@donga.com