An 83-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in prison for the murder of his wife, who had been suffering from dementia. The man had been caring for her for four years before the incident.
According to the legal community on Friday, the Supreme Court’s First Division, presided over by Justice Roh Kyung Pil, confirmed the lower court’s decision to sentence the defendant to three years in prison for the charge of murder last December.
He was charged with strangling his wife, who was in her 70s, at their home in Gyeonggi Province in September 2023.
According to the investigation, he had been solely responsible for caring for his wife since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2020. The situation became untenable in March 2022 when her condition deteriorated significantly. Lacking adequate support from their children, he reportedly decided to commit the crime.
The lower court took into account the husband’s physical and mental weakness due to his old age, which had made it increasingly difficult for him to care for his wife. The court also considered that he had planned to commit suicide after killing his wife, ultimately deciding on a three-year sentence.
He appealed the verdict, but both the appellate and Supreme Court dismissed his appeal. They found no errors in the lower court’s original judgment, stating that it neither exceeded the limits of free evaluation of evidence nor misinterpreted the law.
