2015Do13569 Violation of the Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes (Place of Public Smuggling)

(B) Indecent conduct in this section

A person shall be appointed.

Prosecutor

Seoul Central District Court Decision 2015No1582 Decided August 21, 2015

November 12, 2015

The appeal is dismissed.

The grounds of appeal are examined.

The finding of guilt in a criminal trial shall be based on evidence with probative value, which makes it possible for a judge to have a correct doubt that the facts charged are true, and if there is no such proof, the conviction cannot be judged even if there is a suspicion of guilt against the defendant (see, e.g., Supreme Court Decisions 2001Do2823, Aug. 21, 2001; 2005Do8675, Mar. 9, 2006). Furthermore, the selection of evidence and its probative value, which are based on the presumption of fact, belong to the free judgment of the fact-finding court (Article 308 of the Criminal Procedure Act).

For the reasons indicated in its reasoning, the lower court reversed the judgment of the first instance that found the Defendant guilty on the facts charged of this case, and sentenced the Defendant not guilty.

The allegation in the grounds of appeal is disputing such fact-finding by the lower court, and is merely an error of the lower court’s determination on the selection and probative value of evidence, which actually belongs to the free judgment of the fact-finding court. In addition, even if examining the reasoning of the lower judgment in light of the aforementioned legal principles and records, the lower court did not exhaust all necessary deliberations and did not err in its judgment by exceeding the bounds of the principle of free evaluation of evidence against logical and empirical rules

Therefore, the appeal is dismissed. It is so decided as per Disposition by the assent of all participating Justices on the bench.

Justices Kim Shin-chul

Justices Kim Yong-deok

Justices Park Young-young

Justices Kim Jong-il