19세기 ‘심리의 시대’를 들여다보는 창 -『일성록』․『추조결옥록』․장계등록을 이용한 살옥사건 기록의 재구성-

Abstract

The 19th century shows distinct features in the history of the judicial system of the Joseon Dynasty, forming a sharp contrast with the preceding period. In the realm of criminal justice that penalizes felony crimes with sentences such as the death penalty, the 19th century can be called the era of simni(審理), or special reexamination. In the traditional criminal procedure, even after determining the death penalty for criminals who committed crimes punishable by death, it was required to review and deliberate the case three times and confirm the king's will before the execution of the death penalty. This practice was called sambok(三覆), which means three-times-review, or gyebok(啓覆). Meanwhile, in the late Joseon Dynasty, the simni reexamination were frequently conducted as a special reexamination procedure for finding prisoners who had dubious or extenuating circumstances, so as to mitigate the death sentence. In the 19th century, the simni reexamination became the general way of disposing death penalty cases instead of the gyebok which has no longer been practiced after 1800. Therefore, in order to study the criminal justice administration of the 19th century, it is necessary to recognize and understand trends and features of the era of simni, in which criminals charged with murder and manslaughter were treated and punished without death sentence. However, the features of that era are difficult to examine. They can be reconstructed only when fragments are collected and connected one by one from the vast criminal case records in Ilseongnok(日省錄), or Records of Daily Reflections, Chujogyeolokrok(秋曹決獄錄), which are the records of the decisions and dispositions of criminal cases by the Ministry of Justice, and Janggyedeungnok(狀啓謄錄), which consists of copies of governors’ reports to the King. Combining these three records provides a series of case records for 64 prisoners. In this article, we explored aspects of this era using this archive. Highlights of the 64 case records are presented to help the reader grasp the reality and trends of this period at a glance, and provide useful and interesting cases for the study of legal history and law and society in the late Joseon Dynasty.