Beyond Prosecutorial Reform: A Checklist for Fairer Investigations

A proposed checklist for investigations aims to prevent missteps and ensure thoroughness in criminal cases, particularly those involving influential individuals or potential sexual offenses. The checklist, suggested by lawyer Kang Dong-pil during a forum on police investigative powers, includes steps such as verifying if a suspect or their family works in law enforcement and immediately reporting to superiors and prosecutors.

It also mandates checking if the suspect or victim is a prominent local figure, ensuring prompt requests for communication records, and sharing initial evidence lists with prosecutors for cross-verification of admissibility and necessity. For cases involving female or child victims of death or injury, the checklist specifically requires examining the possibility of sexual offenses as a basic investigative step.

Lawyer Kang argued that such a checklist, shared between investigators and prosecutors from the early stages, could prevent evidence omissions or the downplaying of sexual offense intentions, as seen in the 'Jang Yoon-gi case.' It could also prevent delays in investigations, such as when prosecutors reject police requests for warrants, as occurred in the 'Choi Young-joong case' involving a minor sex trafficking investigation.

Kang attributed the difficulty in implementing such a system historically to the competitive relationship between the police and prosecution over investigative powers. He believes that a clear separation of roles into investigative and prosecutorial bodies would naturally create a "incentive structure where they need each other." This collaborative model, he noted, is standard in more advanced judicial systems, contrasting with South Korea's "strange overlapping structure" where police conduct initial investigations and prosecutors conduct secondary ones.

The article frames this proposal within the larger context of South Korea's ongoing criminal justice reform, particularly the move to abolish the prosecutor's supplementary investigation rights. This reform aims to move away from a decades-long system perceived as overly powerful and unchecked. The discussion has expanded beyond just the supplementary investigation rights to a broader rationalization and modernization of the entire criminal justice system, including enhancing victim protection and procedural rights.

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This is not an isolated incident. It fits into a disturbing pattern that has become the defining signature of the Tinubu administration: duplication, opacity and reckless fiscal management.