사형 판결 없는 살옥죄인의 처리와 징벌: 19세기 살옥사건 심리ㆍ처결의 경향과 특징

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 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 sambok (三覆啓) or gyebok (啓覆), the regular and final review process for confirm the king's will before the execution of the death penalty. 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. The era of simni opened by King Jeongjo continued into the 19th century. 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. Combining these records provides a series of case records for 2,679 prisoners of ordinary murder cases. In this article, we explored aspects of this era using these records.