Evil That Men Do

Recently, in the JoongAng-Ilbo, there was an article about the Ilsan child molester. Lee Myeong-Cheol was caught beating and attempting to rape a 10-year-old girl. The judge in the Uijeongbu District Court sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

Here are my problems with the judge's decision:

1. This guy is a repeat offender. He was already imprisoned for 10 years for the same act.

2. He already had 3 convictions for raping children and 2 for attempted rape.

3. Child molesters are incurable. According to Dr. Janis Bremmer, "People have started to say that certain sex offenders are incurable." Gail Ryan from the University of Colorado believes that "they may not be treatable with the current methods we have at our disposal."

I'm from California. We have the "Three Strikes Law." If he committed any of these crimes in California, the third conviction would mean a minimum of 25 years. In addition, many U.S. states (42 out of 50) including California have Jessica's Law, which hands out a mandatory 25 year prison sentence and lifetime monitoring to child molesters. "In Florida, sexual battery or rape of a child less than 12 years old is a capital felony, punishable only by death or lifetime imprisonment with no chance of parole."

Lee Myeong-Cheol should never have been released from prison. Only 10 years for raping 3 children? It would be a minimum of 75 years to life in California and the death penalty in Florida. Korea's punishment of sex offenders is really light in comparison.

I'll light a candle for Korea's children.