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Man Wrongly Convicted Hwaseong Murder to Be Retried

A man identified as Yoon arrives to file for a retrial at the Suwon District Court in Gyeonggi Province on Nov. 13, 2019. /Yonhap

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A court has ordered the retrial of a 53-year-old man who was wrongly convicted for a murder committed to which the infamous Hwaseong serial killer has now confessed.

The man, identified as Yoon, filed for a retrial in November of last year after serial killer Lee Chun-jae (57) admitted to the murder in Hwaseong south of Seoul in the 1980.

The Suwon District Court on Tuesday ruled that Yoon's case must be retried over serious flaws in the original trial in October 1989. The retrial is expected to start in March.

"Lee Chun-jae's testimony shows he was responsible for the crime and various evidence points to the credibility of his accounts", the court said.

Yoon had been convicted of raping and murdering a 13-year-old girl in her home in Hwaseong on Sept. 16, 1988. Police arrested him in July 1989 and he was sentenced to life in prison. He was released on parole in August 2009 after serving 20 years.

Lee was identified as the Hwaseong serial killer last year during a re-investigation of DNA samples and admitted to 14 murders, including 10 in the region. The confession led to suspicions that police had coerced Yoon into a false confession and police admitted it.

The story was adapted for the movie "Memories of Murder".

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