Court sentences doctor for killing pregnant wife to 20 years

The Supreme Court confirmed a 20-year prison term given to Baek, a 33-year-old resident with a university hospital in Seoul. He had been suspected of killing his wife nearing the end of her pregnancy. In the final appeal of a trial on Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling, saying, “There is no misunderstanding regarding facts of legal reasoning in the judgment by the lower court that found his wife was suffocated to death due to choking in her neck by Park, considering her posture when she was found dead.”

In its ruling, the Supreme Court said, “The possibility that Park fainted or fell off in the bathtub cannot be completely ruled out, but a number of signs have been discovered to suggest that the couple engaged in physical conflicts, including blood stains that were found on clothing of Baek and Park at the time of the incident.”

Baek was indicted for the charge that he choked to death his wife, who was nine-month pregnant, at their residence in Dohwa-dong in Seoul’s Mapo district in January 2011, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the lower court and appellate court trials. However, the Supreme Court returned the case to the Seoul High Court in July 2012, saying, “The cause of the death and other factors need to be thoroughly verified again.” In a retrial of the case in December that year, the Seoul High Court sentenced Park 20 years in prison again, which the Supreme Court confirmed on Friday.

verso@donga.com