Lee Woo-chul, a death row inmate whose sentence was finalized after he brutally murdered a fellow gang member and the victim's girlfriend on grounds that the colleague had tried to betray the organization, has died in prison.
According to the Ministry of Justice on Monday, Lee, who had been held at Gwangju Prison, died last month while battling cancer. His death came approximately 31 years after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in 1996.
With his death, the total number of confirmed death row inmates in South Korea has fallen to 56, comprising 52 in civilian prisons and four in a military prison. All are male convicted murderers.
◇ "Killed the Girlfriend to Silence Her" — The Brutality of the Crime
Lee Woo-chul, a former member of the Anyang AP faction, a violent gang based in the Anyang area, was indicted for murdering fellow gang member Lim at a hillside near an expressway rest stop in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, in September 1994 and secretly burying the body.
