after the murder of his subordinates, the 'hero group' gang boss who took out the liver and ate it, protested the death sentence and appealed.

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Air date: October 28, 2024 (Mon)
■ Host: Lawyer Lee Won-hwa
■ Dialogue: Lawyer Lee Hyun-tae

* 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): Yoo Deok-hee, who was a member of the hero group, suffered from guilt after the crime. I thought I couldn't betray the organization, but I couldn't stand it. Eventually, Yoo Deok-hee visited the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office and turned herself in. It was five days after the crime. What happened and why Yoo Deok-hee hesitated to turn himself in? It's said that something really terrible happened that you can't even imagine. What the hell happened between them? And what proof did Yoo Deok-hee prove to avoid this situation? Let's take a closer look at this case in Case X file. Hello. It is Lee Won-hwa's Case X File. Today, we are also with lawyer Lee Hyun-tae of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer. Hello,

◇Lawyer Lee Hyun-tae (hereinafter referred to as Lee Hyun-tae): This is Lee Hyun-tae, a lawyer at LOEL Law Firm.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: Recently, there was a lot of news about the heyday of MZ gang members, but it seems that there is a lot of difference in methods and organization from the old gang members.

◇Lee Hyun-tae: The MZ generation accounted for 71.4% of the age group of gangsters arrested this year. In the past, gang members made profits through the management of commercial districts in the high street, but MZ gang members are making profits through online crimes such as virtual currency, which is changing their methods a lot. In addition, in the past, gang members were maintained as a single organization, while MZ gang members are dispersed and are in the form of point organizations that commit crimes.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: The case we're going to deal with today is not an MZ gangster. This is an incident that happened in a group that we often think of when we think of gang members. You started with alcohol, right?

◇Lee Hyun-tae: The incident began at around 5 a.m. on October 22, 1999 in front of a convenience store in Tanbang-dong, Seo-gu, Daejeon. Here, members of the hero group, who were violent organizations, were drinking. There were characters named Lee Soon-cheol, Chang Jong-bin, Park Jae-beom, Yoo Deok-hee, Jeong Deok-soo, and Kwak Jong-gil, and two female acquaintances of Chang Jong-bin were also present. However, while drinking for a long time, Kwak Jong-gil began to swear at his seniors and act as an unwelcome person.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: There are people who get violent whenever they drink.

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: As such, Kwak Jong-gil's shot was a downbeat. Kwak Jong-gil had severe injections, such as disrespecting his seniors when he drank, especially for Chang Jong-bin, who was a first-class physical disability. Whenever this happens, I apologize after I'm sober, and I won't make the same mistake again. I used to make a commitment like this. Kwak Jong-gil injected again in front of the convenience store that day, and even Chang Jong-bin's female acquaintances began to touch. He even sexually harassed her by swearing and touching her chest. Chang Jong-bin, who did not see this, broke the beer bottle on the floor and warned him, and Kwak Jong-gil mocked and replied. Park Jae-beom, who was watching this scene, knocked down Kwak Jong-gil and kicked him on the head, and eventually Kwak Jong-gil fainted on the floor. The owner of the convenience store who was watching this reported it to the police, and the situation in front of the convenience store seemed to be over.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Did the police go right away?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: He pushed Kwak Jong-gil, who passed out, into the back seat of the car and left before the police were dispatched. Leaving only Yoo Deok-hee at the scene to clean up, Lee Soon-cheol and Chang Jong-bin drove to the camp with Kwak Jong-gil, who passed out, and Park Jae-beom followed in a taxi.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Have you regained the spirit of a member named Kwak Jong-gil who was assaulted? It was my fault again this time. Did he apologize?

◇Lee Hyun-tae: After arriving at the camp, he moved Kwak Jong-gil, who passed out, to the floor of the living room, and when Kwak came to his senses, he began to scream and say, "If you can't kill me today, I'll kill you all." At this time, Park Jae-beom picked up the baseball bat and hit Kwak Jong-gil again without mercy. Kwak Jong-gil repeated the same thing even though he was beaten, and this time Lee Soon-cheol took over the baseball bat and began to assault again. Kwak Jong-gil, who became so devastated, said that Jeong Deok-soo wanted to move to the hospital quickly, but Chang Jong-bin opposes this. This is because I thought it was a problem even if Kwak Jong-gil died in the hospital, and it was a problem even if he lived. Eventually, they decide to kill Kwak Jong-gil on the spot.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: I think I had to deal with the situation in such an extreme way, so what happened after that?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: They continued to assault Kwak Jong-gil with baseball bats and iron hammers, and then brutally killed him by stabbing him in the abdomen. Not only that, but we tried to eliminate the traces of the crime as much as possible by using three hoe knives to dismember the body in the bathroom and remove teeth and fingerprints. Then Chang Jong-bin and Park Jae-beom said they had to kill Yoo Deok-hee to keep the secret. This is because Yoo Deok-hee was Kwak Jong-gil's best friend. But at this time, Lee Soon-cheol was worried that if Yoo Deok-hee was killed, he would say that his lover, Kang Jeong-sook, should also be killed. So I threatened Yoo Deok-hee to join if you don't want to die. In this situation, Yoo Deok-hee became afraid that she would die like Kwak Jong-gil. So I make this suggestion to the members to show proof that they are on the same side.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: What was the suggestion?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: Let's make a bizarre suggestion to take the liver from Kwak Jong-gil's body and share it, saying that we will never reveal this. In response, Lee Soon-cheol calls out Kang Jeong-sook from the room next to the media and asks her to join him. After taking the liver from Kwak Jong-gil's body, the members gathered together and shared the carved liver with soju, and swore to take this secret to the grave.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: I think I can only think of the word "bizarre" beyond the cruelty, but I guess this person named Lee Soon-cheol you just mentioned was the boss of this organization, right?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: Yes, that's right. Lee Soon-cheol was born in September 1967 in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, and spent his childhood in a very deprived family environment. The father, who was not economically rich but did not have a decent job, even used violence against his mother and children. Perhaps that's why Lee Soon-cheol has been engaged in gang fights with street robbers since his childhood. In the meantime, Lee Soon-cheol, who was imprisoned for murder in 1999, is released from prison on parole. And as soon as Lee Soon-cheol is released from prison, he brings together friends and juniors he met at the juvenile center and forms this violent organization, the Hero Group. This hero group raised funds by dabbling in areas such as contract violence and insurance fraud in private cases, and with this money collected, they rented a two-story detached house in Daejeon and used it as a camp. And he continued to live a luxurious life by driving a luxury car.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: There is a saying that he had a criminal record of murder.

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: Yes, Lee Soon-chul committed his first murder in 1989, when he was 22. While drinking at a nightclub in Gwangyang with his juvenile colleagues, he got into a dispute with another group, and when one of the opponents rushed in with a sickle, Lee Soon-cheol took out a knife and stabbed him in the thigh, and the other party eventually died of excessive bleeding. Due to this, Lee Soon-cheol was sentenced to 12 years in prison and released on parole on May 27, 1999, 10 years and 8 months later. This was the first murder, but in fact, Lee Soon-cheol has been in and out of juvenile detention centers since he was 13. He spent half his life in juvenile detention and prison in groups, fighting gang fights with his classmates. So what happened in the end? They did not just dismember Kwak Jong-gil's body, but they also showed precision that prevented him from being identified, such as breaking teeth and removing fingerprints. Then, the dismembered body was divided into 11 garbage bags, loaded into a car, went to the hills, dug three pits at 20m intervals and buried them in secret. As such, the case seemed to be covered, but a week later, one of the criminals turned himself in to the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office, revealing the crime.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Who turned himself in? Was it Yoo Deok-hee who was close to Kwak Jong-gil?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: Yoo Deok-hee, who felt guilty about killing your friend, turned himself in. Since then, the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office has conducted a joint investigation with the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office and arrested all six members of the hero group, and excavated the bodies of bones and flesh scattered separately at the dark burial site that Yoo Deok-hee informed. And they raided their camp and seized about 2 million won in cash, checks, 13 deposit accounts, knives, and baseball bats.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: How did the trial go?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: In the first trial, the court sentenced Lee Soon-cheol, Park Jae-beom, and Chang Jong-bin to life imprisonment and Jeong Deok-soo to 25 years in prison. In addition, Man Won-sik and Yoo Deok-hee were sentenced to eight months in prison and two years in prison, and Kang Jeong-sook, Lee Soon-chul's cohabitation, was sentenced to one year in prison and two years of probation. However, in the appeal trial, the head Lee Soon-cheol was sentenced to death higher than the first trial. The sentences against the other defendants were maintained.

◆ Won-hwa: How did it turn upside down?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: The appellate court sentenced Lee Soon-cheol to death, saying that the brutality of the crime, the means of killing, and the brutality of the process, such as killing the victim in a cruel way and sharing the liver after the murder, are revealed.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: It's really absurd. It seems that Lee Soon-cheol protested against the Constitution, saying it was against the Constitution. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court, didn't it?

◇Lee Hyun-tae: Lee Soon-cheol appealed, saying that the death penalty is contrary to the Constitution, which puts respect for the lives of the people as the most important value, and the Supreme Court upheld the original ruling that sentenced Lee to death, refusing to accept Lee Soon-cheol's claim that the death penalty was unconstitutional. In addition, Lee Soon-cheol was caught after making three suicide attempts and two prison escape plans for about seven years after becoming on death row. Meanwhile, in August 2000, during the appeal trial, Chang Jong-bin left a suicide note and hung himself from a window and ended his life.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: Was there anything unusual in the suicide note?

◇Lee Hyun-tae: The will left by Chang Jong-bin said this. Lee Soon-cheol did it because I told him to. Please save Lee Soon-cheol. Lee Soon-cheol grew up affectionately and gave me affection and would have listened to everything I said. In fact, it was more of a petition for only one person, Lee Soon-cheol, rather than a will. And based on his will, Lee Soon-cheol said in December 2019, 10 years after the incident, that he was not the main culprit and requested a retrial.

◆ Won-hwa Lee: What happened to the retrial?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: Of course, the court rejected Lee Soon-cheol's request for retrial.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: In fact, even if you are on death row, you cannot be executed. So, in the case of Lee Soon-cheol, it is a situation that is no different from life imprisonment. Nevertheless, he requested a retrial. If you asked me to serve life in prison, I should say that I was aiming for parole, right?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: Yes, that's right. In reality, the only difference between the death penalty and life imprisonment is the possibility of parole because the death penalty has been virtually abolished in Korea.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: In fact, Lee Soon-cheol has a history of committing murder and serving prison terms in the past, but came out on parole once in the middle. I think I might have considered that again this time because I have experience. In the case of death row inmates, should I say that there is no possibility of parole at all?

◇ Lee Hyun-tae: It's not entirely possible because you may be pardoned or commuted depending on the amnesty law.

◆ Won-hwa: Do you mean that if you are pardoned or commuted, you can discuss parole again after that? Case X File That's all we prepared for today. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.