(2nd LD) Convicted serial killer commits suicide in prison

(ATTN: RECASTS lead; UPDATES with more details in para 4-5, 9; more background at
bottom)
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- A convicted serial murderer on death row died Sunday
after a suicide attempt in his prison cell, government officials said, suspecting
he took his own life out of anxiety over public opinion urging the enforcement of
death sentences.
Jeong Nam-gyu, 40, died at 2:40 a.m. Sunday while hospitalized after trying to
kill himself Saturday inside his cell at the Seoul Detention House in Uiwang,
just south of Seoul, police and Justice Ministry officials said.
The death row inmate hung himself with a make-shift rope made by plastic trash
bags, tying it on a strut on the wall of his cell where a television was placed,
according to the officials.
No will was discovered, but he left a memo on a notepad saying, "Life is like a
cloud" and that the government has no intention to abolish capital punishment.
Preliminary examinations revealed that he died of a heart attack and a lack of
oxygen to the brain. The ministry requested that the National Institute of
Scientific Investigation perform an autopsy.
Jeong was convicted in 2007 and was given the death penalty for killing 13 people
and injuring seven others between January 2004 and April 2006, including two
children he had sexually assaulted. Many of the victims were women and children
living in southwestern Seoul.
Since its foundation in 1948, South Korea has executed a total of 920 people,
according to a ministry report. The last execution was carried out in December
1997.
There had been an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty since February 1998,
when then President Kim Dae-jung -- who himself was sentenced to death in 1980,
but was later pardoned -- took office.
The ministry suspects that Jeong killed himself because of anxiety amid a steady
rise in brutal crimes and public opinion that capital punishment should be
enforced.
The government and lawmakers have recently stepped up anti-crime efforts against
murder suspects and child sex offenders following a gruesome serial and pedophile
murder cases earlier this year.
Measures include the establishment of a "gene bank" to collect and store DNA
samples of convicts to use in criminal investigations and publicizing suspects'
identities. The ruling Grand National Party has also suggested holding
discussions with the government over the resumption the death penalty.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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