"The landlord wants to kill me," it turns out, the tenant's delusion of damage.

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Air date: October 21, 2024 (Mon)
■ Host: Attorney Lee Won-hwa
■ Dialogue: Attorney Kim Kang-ho

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Lawyer Lee Won-hwa (hereinafter referred to as Lee Won-hwa): It was around 2011 that a woman in her 60s moved to Cheonan. I wanted to live hard with a new heart and a new meaning. However, there was something intrusive in A's eyes, but that was the landlord of the house he rented. It is said that A, a woman, has always been anxious about the fact that she still has a bad relationship with B, whom she knew in the past. The reason was that Mr. B was worried that he could hurt himself at any time. And what caught A's eye was the landlord's act that felt suspicious for some reason. Mr. A has decided that he should no longer leave it as it is. Ms. A, a woman who believes that the landlord will do her job. And the landlord says he didn't even intend to do that. Whose words are they true? But there was a surprising twist hidden in this case. What was it? Let's talk about this in detail in today's case X file. Hello, I'm Lee Won-hwa, the case X file of lawyer Lee Won-hwa. Today, we are also with lawyer Kim Kang-ho of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◇ Attorney Kim Kang-ho (hereinafter referred to as Kim Kang-ho): Yes, hello. This is lawyer Kim Kang-ho of LOEL Law Firm.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: It was the kind of case where the tenant brutally killed the landlord. It seems that he wielded the weapon a lot of times.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. Mr. A started showing signs of paranoia that the landlord was bothering him when he moved to Cheonan City in 2011. After moving to a new house in May 2014, A met the landlord in his 80s. Mr. A decided to kill the landlord after a year of moving. He went to the landlord on June 16, 2015, and came back when he said his son was going to come. A few hours later, A, who went back to the landlord, wielded a weapon and stabbed him more than 60 times to kill him.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: You said you stabbed 60 times, why on earth did you do that?

◇Kim Kang-ho: The landlord was trying to kill him. It wasn't even the first time that Mr. A attacked the landlord. In December 2014, six months before the crime, he called the landlord to his room, imprisoned him for spraying medicine on rice and soup, and even assaulted him. However, the landlord did not want to punish Mr. A, so he was not prosecuted. But in the end, six months later, the murder broke out.

◆Won-Won-Won-Won: Was it real that the landlord was trying to harm the tenant woman A?

◇Kim Kang-ho: That's the problem. It was not true at all and it was just a delusion of Mr. A. Mr. A suffered from the delusion that the landlord was trying to kill me by taking drugs on food and even installed CCTV in his room.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: I think it is regrettable that the assault accident six months ago caused proper punishment, or at least it could have been prevented if it had been with psychiatric help.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. If there were measures taken during the assault accident, it would not have led to such a larger incident. Mr. A was eventually charged with visiting the landlord where he had rented and stabbing him to death more than 60 times.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Since the motive for the murder was so ridiculous, I wonder if A claimed the reason for the reduction such as mental and physical weakness or mental loss. What do you think?

◇Kim Kang-ho: Mr. A said he stabbed the victim about eight times during the trial and claimed that he had no intention of killing her. However, the first trial court judged that he intended to kill A based on the fact that he told the police that he committed the crime because the landlord couldn't overcome his anger by verbally abusing him. The court also pointed out that A should impose severe punishment in light of his brutal appearance, such as not shaking at all, saying he was okay because it would end soon to the victim during the crime process, and his attempt to avoid responsibility, saying he had no intention of killing him. In the end, the court sentenced A to 13 years in prison and treatment and supervision.

◆ Won-Won-Won: I think both sides appealed?

◇Kim Kang-ho: In the appeal trial held in December of that year, he reversed the original trial, which sentenced him to 13 years in prison, and sentenced him to 15 years in prison, believing that A's mental and physical weakness did not appear to be large. Regarding this, the second trial court explained that the victim was killed by the accused who came for no special reason and was unable to sleep comfortably. It also took into account the fact that the defendant did nothing to recover the damage.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: Sentenced to 15 years in prison for treatment and supervision As you mentioned, please explain what treatment supervision is like.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Treatment supervision is a security measure that accommodates a person who commits a crime in a mental and physical disability, an addiction to drugs or alcohol, or a mental disorder in a treatment supervision facility to take measures for treatment. The period of imprisonment cannot exceed 15 years for mental and physical disabilities and 2 years for addiction to drugs, alcohol, etc. If treatment supervision and punishment are combined, treatment supervision is executed first, and in this case, the execution period of treatment supervision is included in the execution period.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: The problem is that things similar to the previous case are actually happening. Something similar happened recently, right?

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. B was charged with killing a neighbor he had previously worked with with with a blunt weapon several times on January 8 last year at a multi-family house in Jungnang-gu, Seoul. B has been delusional since 2017 that people around him are trying to poison him, and the victim also killed him because he thought he was trying to poison him. After the crime, he suspected that the landlord was also trying to hurt him and set the house on fire. The first trial admitted that B was mentally and physically weak in a delusional disorder, but sentenced him to 12 years in prison and ordered probation in consideration of the poor nature of the crime. B and the prosecution appealed against the ruling, but it was rejected, and the Supreme Court also rejected B's appeal, saying that it is not very unfair to maintain the first trial's sentence of 20 years, considering various circumstances such as the defendant's age, prosperity, environment, relationship with victims, motivation and outcome of each crime, and circumstances after the crime. In Japan, which was also dealt with in Case X file in August, the murder was also caused by mental illness. At that time, the perpetrator thought that the victim was a spy sent from the current government, which continuously followed him. In addition, during the police investigation, he said that someone had installed an eavesdropping device in my ear.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: I think of the murderous rampage at Seohyun Station in Bundang last year. The culprit of this case, Choi Won-jong, is also schizophrenic. It's said that the delusion was at a very serious level.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes. Choi Won-jong drove to the sidewalk in front of AK Plaza Department Store in Seohyeon-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do on August 3 last year, and wielded a weapon against passers-by, causing 14 casualties. Choi Won-jong said in a police investigation that a group of Buddha statues tried to kill me, and he wanted to make the unfair situation public. He repeated unknown statements, and made remarks that were presumed to be schizophrenia or delusional, saying to reporters that he has been a victim of organizational stalking for several years, and that he thought he should kill people around the house because he thought there were many organizational stalkers around the house. Choi Won-jong has been treated at the Department of Mental Health since he was in middle school due to severe interpersonal avoidance, and was also diagnosed with Cho Hyun-sung personality disorder. However, I didn't go to the hospital at some point, saying that even if I take psychiatric medicine, it doesn't work. After that, it led to the crime, and after being sentenced to life imprisonment in the first trial, he was also sentenced to life imprisonment in the same way in the appeal trial.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: Usually, no matter how mentally ill they are, they are sentenced to heavy punishment, but sometimes they are innocent.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes. have a drink C, a son with schizophrenia who was put on trial for beating his father to death by hallucinations, was also acquitted for lack of evidence in the second trial. Even after the arrest, Mr. C rambled, saying, "I grabbed him by the collar and cut him off, I killed him, I killed him because I wasn't guilty." Mr. C's hand showed no signs of bruising, and the victim's blood was found on his right finger and top. In response, the first trial court acquitted Mr. C. The court cannot rule out the possibility that the victim fell from the third floor of the guest house, saying that even if the defendant is admitted to hitting the victim several times with fists and feet, it is not sufficiently proven that the head damage that caused the victim's death was caused by such assault. He explained that the window of the living room on the third floor, where the defendant and the victim drank, is not high. The court also judged that the defendant's statement made by the police at the time of the 112 report or immediately after the 112 report was too much to be regarded as a serious confession, citing the fact that C had previously falsely reported to 112 related to assault and murder. This precedent can be seen as a case of not being acquitted due to lack of responsibility for mental illness, but being acquitted due to lack of evidence.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: Yes, this is a very cautious part because the crime rate is particularly high compared to those who do not because they suffer from mental illness. There are no statistics like this at all. Therefore, there is a high risk of committing violent crimes even if you are mentally ill. This formula does not work at all. However, on the other hand, there are a lot of people who are scared because crimes of people with schizophrenia often come out. I think it's a really difficult question.

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, that's right. However, the current status of violent crimes by mentally ill patients such as schizophrenia is on the rise. According to the Korea Institute for Criminal Justice Policy, 9,058 mentally ill people committed crimes related to the current criminal law, including violent crimes, in 2020, up 24.4% from 7304 in 2018. In connection with this, compulsory hospitalization for mentally ill patients under the current law is hospitalization by a person obligated to protect under the Mental Health Welfare Act. Involuntary hospitalization can be performed if two or more protective personnel apply and two or more specialists agree. In addition, there are administrative hospitalizations in the law that allow local government heads to apply for compulsory hospitalization, but the actual implementation is limited due to concerns over lawsuits.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: But I can't even let go of it. That's why some people need a judicial system. I think you're talking about it, but what is the judicial hospitalization system like?

◇Kim Kang-ho: Yes, the crime of judicial hospitalization is a system that allows judges to decide whether to hospitalize severely mentally ill patients to prevent crimes, and is mentioned as a measure to prevent recurrence. According to a professor of psychiatry, mental illness is a disease in which aggressive crime rates fall much lower when treated properly and can be recovered when treated properly. So many countries are thinking about how to get proper treatment, and in the U.S., they have judicial hospitalization, and in the U.K. and Australia, they have a mental health tribunal system. In fact, criminals with mental illness who come to the law hospital accept the need for treatment to some extent just by going through a procedure called trial. Accordingly, the government has begun public debate on the judicial hospitalization system. In the mental health policy innovation plan announced in December 2023, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it will start social discussions on judicial hospitalization and revitalize outpatient treatment support systems to prevent treatment interruptions for patients at risk of self-inflicted injury. An official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, "Since August last year, a pan-government task force such as the Ministry of Justice has been in operation to collect various opinions and grasp the current situation." This official has a big problem of discontinuing treatment. He diagnosed that the suspension of treatment caused him to miss the right time for treatment and become worse, leading to bad events. If the hospitalization and isolation system for some severely mentally ill patients who are highly likely to harm others can be operated effectively in due process, introducing such a judicial hospitalization system would be one option.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: The X-file of the case Today, we looked at the case of a woman in her 60s who was delusional and killed her new homeowner with a weapon. That's all we've prepared for today. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.