Chapter 56
『 Translator – Divinity 』
“The defendant, Lee Eul-nam, on January 13, 2014, removed the life-sustaining treatment from the deceased A, who was unable to survive without it, causing A’s death. This is a serious criminal act committed by a medical professional, arbitrarily deciding the fate of a life, a sacred value.”
I swallowed hard and added,
“Therefore, I, the prosecutor, hereby indict the defendant, Lee Eul-nam… as an ‘accomplice’ to murder under Article 250 of the Criminal Act, that is, for aiding and abetting murder.”
Article 32 of the Criminal Act (Accomplices) A person who aids and abets the crime of another shall be punished as an accessory.
Aiding and abetting, simply put, is the act of assisting or encouraging someone who directly commits a crime to make it easier for them to carry out the crime.
Examples include encouraging and instigating someone to kill another person, or obtaining and handing them a murder weapon.
If it goes beyond mere aiding and abetting to the point of ‘ordering’ someone to commit a crime, it’s called instigation.
Hiring a hitman is an easy example to understand.
“Accomplice?”
“Judging from what you just said, shouldn’t he be indicted as the principal offender of murder?”
The audience murmured.
“Accomplice, you say.”
Jang Yong-hwan asked,
“Then, are you saying there’s a separate principal offender?”
“That’s correct.”
I nodded.
“Of course, that would be the son of A, the person who requested the removal from the defendant, Lee Eul-nam… Kim Gab-dong.”
“Interesting.”
Jang Yong-hwan’s eyes narrowed.
“Do you understand the concept of aiding and abetting?”
“Of course.”
“In this case, Kim Gab-dong didn’t directly do anything. He simply urged Lee Eul-nam and the other doctors at Hospital C to discharge A, leading them to discontinue life-sustaining treatment.”
A testing gaze fell upon me.
“Then, wouldn’t it make more sense to consider Kim Gab-dong as an accomplice or instigator, and Lee Eul-nam, who directly participated in the discontinuation of life-sustaining treatment, as the principal offender?”
“I plan to prove that as well.”
As I answered confidently, Jang Yong-hwan’s lips curled upwards.
‘Yes, this is it.’
Actually, from the prosecutor’s perspective, if I wanted to go all the way, it would be right to indict him as the principal offender of murder.
This is because an accomplice receives a lesser sentence than the principal offender.
Although both the one who directly killed and the one who helped with the killing were bad guys, if we had to compare, the former was naturally the worse one.
But what did Jang Yong-hwan say before this match started?
He clearly said to construct the ‘best’ argument.
In other words, he was telling us to choose and develop the direction that would result in the heaviest punishment among the acceptable, reasonable arguments.
It would be putting the cart before the horse to be greedy for a heavier punishment and end up with logical loopholes in the argument.
At least in my judgment, in this case, it was a bit of a stretch to punish Lee Eul-nam as the principal offender of murder.
“…Let’s see about that.”
He nodded naturally and turned to Gu Min-hwan. It was time for the defendant’s opening statement.
“Defense. Do you admit to the charges?”
‘What will he do?’
Originally, for the defense to win, they had to prove innocence.
But in this case, not only me, but also Gu Min-hwan on the opposing side, was subject to ambiguous evaluation criteria.
The vague evaluation criteria of “present the best argument” was a kind of restriction, but it also opened up the possibility of compromise.
What if, after calmly analyzing the case, they judged that it was impossible to obtain an acquittal? The defense could also argue in the direction of minimizing the charges.
‘He’ll probably do that.’
It wasn’t impossible for Lee Eul-nam to claim innocence in this case.
He could try to persuade the court that it was a legal case of euthanasia, as we had discussed during the material analysis.
However, it was a path with room for dispute, and the probability of it being accepted was low.
There was no reason to take such a gamble when the question asked for a reasonable compromise.
Especially for Gu Min-hwan, who was obsessed with winning, I judged that he wouldn’t choose to take a risk.
Therefore,
“…We do not admit to the charges.”
I was dumbfounded by Gu Min-hwan’s declaration.
“The defendant, Lee Eul-nam, is not guilty.”
‘What?’
I wasn’t the only one who was surprised.
“Not guilty?”
“…Is he joking?”
Even my teammates, who had made various predictions while analyzing the records,
“Claiming complete innocence in this situation… isn’t that a bit risky?”
“Is he planning a head-on confrontation?”
The audience also began to buzz.
‘What’s his plan?’
There was no way a skilled person like Gu Min-hwan wouldn’t be able to think of arguing for lawful euthanasia.
But at the same time, he would also know that it wasn’t a guaranteed path to victory…
I glanced at Gu Min-hwan, who was sitting at the defense table.
“…”
But he had already returned to his silent state.
I couldn’t read any expression from Gu Min-hwan, who was examining the materials with an emotionless gaze.
‘This is frustrating.’
Was Gu Min-hwan really taking a gamble with low odds? Or was there something I had missed?
But there was no point in agonizing over it.
At this point, I had no choice but to face him head-on.
“Then, let’s begin the evidence investigation procedure.”
It was my turn to step up.
“Your Honor,”
I cleared my throat and stood up.
“I stated earlier that the defendant, Lee Eul-nam, is an accomplice who aided and abetted murder.”
I glanced at Jang Yong-hwan, the presiding judge, and then at the audience.
“But for aiding and abetting to be established, the principal offense must be established first. Therefore, although he is not the defendant in this case, I would like to first prove that Kim Gab-dong is the principal offender of murder.”
It was only natural. Even if I handed someone a knife, it wouldn’t be a crime if they didn’t do anything wrong with it.
Ultimately, to discuss the accomplice’s guilt, I had to prove that the principal offender committed the crime.
‘That’s why he left Lee Eul-nam as the defendant.’
If there was only one defendant, the criteria would be simpler, making it easier to score.
But it would be a shame to just throw away half of the problem and issues after creating them for two defendants.
So Jang Yong-hwan chose Lee Eul-nam, the accomplice, as the defendant.
After all, to determine his guilt, we would have to argue about Kim Gab-dong as well. It was quite a devious tactic.
‘Well, it was because I read his intentions that I could be sure that Lee Eul-nam’s crime was aiding and abetting murder.’
There was a reason behind every choice the examiner made.
Starting from there, it became possible to discover the path to the answer, not as a struggling examinee, but from the perspective of the person who designed and created the problem.
Anyway, for that reason, I had to address Kim Gab-dong first.
Having laid that foundation, I continued my explanation.
“To prove Kim Gab-dong’s murder, we need to show two things.”
One, I raised my index finger.
“That the discontinuation of life-sustaining treatment in this case, which occurred at Kim Gab-dong’s request, constitutes murder, not lawful euthanasia.”
Two, I extended my middle finger.
“That Kim Gab-dong is the principal offender of that murder.”
“Let’s examine them one by one from now on,” I said, unfolding two sheets of paper.
“First is the issue of whether the discontinuation of life-sustaining treatment in this case falls under ‘lawful euthanasia’. In the current Korean legal system, there’s the ‘Act on Hospice and Palliative Care and Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for Patients at the End of Life’. It’s called the Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for short.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of that.”
“Me too. It reminds me of preparing for college entrance interviews.”
“Euthanasia pros and cons are a common topic in interviews. It was even in the academy textbooks.”
I nodded towards the murmuring audience.
“The Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment stipulates that if a patient is in an irreversible critical condition, the patient’s family can request the discontinuation of life-sustaining treatment.”
“Then, we can just follow that law?”
“We just need to consider whether it was an irreversible state.”
The audience marveled at how the issue seemed to have become simpler, but I refuted them.
“Unfortunately, the Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment cannot be applied in this case.”
I shook my head and explained.
“The Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment was enacted on February 3, 2016. But this incident occurred in 2014. If you look at the records, the charges were also filed in 2014. In other words… we are currently in a courtroom in 2014.”
At that time, such a law didn’t exist. Therefore, it was impossible to make a judgment based on the Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment.
As I reached that conclusion, a chorus of “Oohs” came back.
“You even looked at the date?”
“Of course, we have to. The other side might point it out.”
“Still, it’s an easily overlooked part. We habitually check the date for the Real Name Financial Transaction Act because it’s a famous exam topic, but it’s praiseworthy that you meticulously checked it even for an unfamiliar law that we don’t study. You have good basics.”
“I heard he was the top student in the first-year midterms, he’s definitely not all talk.”
Even the second-year students who were hostile towards me were expressing admiration. I had to keep this momentum going.
“Based on the time of the incident, the legal basis for allowing the discontinuation of life-sustaining treatment must be found in precedents.”
“Supreme Court case 2009da17417.”
Han Seol continued in a clear voice.
“In ‘cases where it is recognized that the patient is exercising their right to self-determination based on human dignity and value, and the right to pursue happiness, after reaching an irreversible stage of death’, euthanasia, that is, the discontinuation of meaningless life-sustaining treatment, is permitted.”
“In other words,” she added,
“There are two criteria to be met. In this case, whether A had reached an irreversible stage of death, and whether it is recognized that he exercised his right to self-determination.”
Since we had already discussed these issues, the division of roles was smooth and practiced.
Han Seol had set the frame, and now it was my turn to present the evidence that those conditions weren’t met.
It was at that moment,
Clap. Clap.
A sudden burst of applause interrupted me.
“Excellent.”
The source of the sound was Gu Min-hwan.