"Motel serial murder suspect is a psychopath"...Will it affect any sentence reduction?

[Financial News] As a woman in her 20s surnamed Kim, the suspect in the so-called "Gangbuk motel serial murder case," has been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, commonly referred to as psychopathy, attention is now turning to how this assessment might influence her sentence. Experts note that whether a suspect is a psychopath is used mainly as a reference to determine the need for social isolation and similar measures, and they stress that it does not serve as a basis for a reduced sentence.
According to police on the 5th, Seoul Gangbuk Police Station announced the previous day that the results of the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) assessment conducted on Kim indicated that she meets the criteria for psychopathy.
Police use the psychopathy assessment as one of the tools to determine whether an offender is a psychopath. The test evaluates traits considered core to psychopathy, such as lack of guilt, remorse, and empathy, emotional coldness, impulsivity, and irresponsibility. It consists of 20 items with a maximum score of 40 points. A trained expert builds rapport with the subject and then conducts interviews, assigning 0 to 2 points for each item to calculate a total score. The examination is carried out in three stages, with a lead examiner and an assistant examiner sharing roles, and the final score is determined after discussion.
Items reportedly include statements such as "Even when seeing something moving, they do not feel moved" and "They lie as a matter of habit." However, experts do not simply go down the list of questions in order. Instead, they tailor their questions based on a range of background materials, including the suspect’s school records. In the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), a score of 25 or higher is generally regarded as indicating a strong psychopathic tendency, while in the United States of America (US) the threshold is 30. Those who are not psychopaths are known to score around 15 points.
However, a person is not labeled a psychopath based solely on the test score. Experts reach a conclusion after comprehensively reviewing the test results together with information about the person’s childhood, past behavior, criminal record, psychiatric diagnoses, and profiler interview findings. In the past, when Jeong Yu-jeong, who murdered a peer woman and dismembered and abandoned the body, received a score of about 28 on the test, police stated that while the score was outside the normal range, it was difficult to definitively classify her as psychopathic based on that alone and said further investigation was needed.
Kim is understood to have scored above the threshold. A police official, when asked about her exact score, explained, "We cannot disclose it due to internal regulations." Previously, Lee Eun-hae in the valley murder case, who scored 31, and child sex offender Cho Doo-soon, who scored 29, both exceeded 25 points and were assessed as psychopaths. Lee’s score became public during the 11th hearing of her trial on August 26, 2022, while Cho’s score was revealed in January 2010 in the monthly investigative journal Criminal Investigation Studies after he had been imprisoned.
Nonetheless, analysts say that even if Kim is deemed a psychopath, this is unlikely to lead to a lighter sentence. This is because psychopathy is used as a basis for assessing the motive for the crime, the risk of reoffending, and the need for social isolation, but it is not interpreted as legal insanity or diminished mental capacity. Experts point out that even offenders with high psychopathic traits who committed heinous crimes have never had their sentences reduced on that basis. For a sentence to be mitigated on grounds of insanity or diminished capacity, it must be proven that a mental disorder affected the person’s ability to make decisions. At the same time, a psychopathy finding may be interpreted as indicating strong antisocial tendencies and a high risk of reoffending, and could therefore be used as grounds for security measures such as protective custody.
Experts stress that a thorough investigation is needed so that no doubts remain. On the 19th of last month, police referred Kim to prosecutors in custody on charges of murder, aggravated assault, and violating the Narcotics Control Act, and they are expanding the investigation on the assumption that there may be additional victims. An Yeongrim, a lawyer at Seonseung Law Firm and a former prosecutor, said, "Given her psychopathic tendencies and prior history, it seems important to identify any unconfirmed victims or attempted crimes that did not result in harm," and added, "Including the possibility of additional offenses, investigators must carefully examine whether the case has been referred in a way that understates the actual charges."

jyseo@fnnews.com Seo Ji-yoon Reporter