Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kepler]

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LPOD&mid=sec&oid=001&aid=0007682576

This is the man that was involved in a drunken brawl with a Korean man who groped one of his female friends. Judging by the hundreds of comments below the article, it appears that many netizens think the sentence isn't long enough and some wonder if a Korean would serve more time for a similar offense in the USA. I was expecting between two and ten years. I think he could have shaved some time off his sentence if he had compensated the deceased's family with a lot of blood money. I've heard judges in Korea take that into a consideration.

[Chaparrastique]

.. seems fair to me.

Commiserations to the victims family, but these are the kinds of things that can potentially happen when you instigate fights by insulting someones wife/ gf.

[hogwonguy1979]

[northway]

[cj1976]

[catman]

Was there any evidence that his girlfriend was assaulted by the man?

[Steelrails]

I don't really see what the outrage is. I mean come on, four years for manslaughter is pretty light. There might be other cases of the Korean justice system being biased, this isn't one of them. Someone was killed after all and the defendant did flee the scene of the crime. We don't know the full circumstances of the case. If its a one off punch, I'd say even as low as two years is understandable. If he hit the guy while he was unconscious and his head was on the ground, that would be up to second degree murder and something like 15-life back home. All things considered, 4 years is reasonable. If Korea does good behavior or something like that, he can even be out a little sooner.

As far as Korean vs. foreigner sentences, I believe there was some incident where a father guy and 3 youths outside a CU got in a fight and the guy fell and hit his head. That might serve as a comparison IF the facts of the case are similar to this one.

[Smithington]

I have little sympathy for the guy. He killed a man, even if that man seems to have been a creep. Even if it was unintentional, it is still manslaughter. And he actively contributed to the situation by being intoxicated up Hooker Hill at 10 in the morning. And by getting into a fist fight with another drunk man. I wonder what the American guy's blood alcohol rate was.

Nothing good can come from still being up Hooker Hill at 10 am - eight hours after most responsible drinkers have jumped in a cab and gone home.

Four years is not an unreasonable price to pay for a man's life, however imperfect that man might have been.

[jazzmaster]

[Smithington]

[Plain Meaning]

Seems like a fair sentence, but I could see arguments for six to eight years, as well.

[EZE]

[Milwaukiedave]

For murder four years is not much. Consider my ex-brother in-law killed his girlfriend in a drunk driving accident and he got 15 years (this was in the US). The charge was also manslaughter.

[World Traveler]

15 years is way above the norm. (Did he have prior convictions for DWI and/or other crimes?)

[EZE]

It varies. The singer for Motley Crue did 15 days for manslaughter. He committed vehicular manslaughter in Los Angeles County, the same county where the Korean was also convicted of manslaughter for using a firearm to kill a girl. The Korean didn't do any jail time at all.