흉악범죄 피의자의 신상공개 기준과 절차 ― ‘특정강력범죄의 처벌에 관한 특례법’ 제8조의 2 재검토 ―

Since 2005, public disclosure of personal information of heinous crime suspects(serial murderer, sex crime offender, etc.) has been prohibited by the regulation. However, series of heinous offenses reported by media has raised demand of disclosure of personal information of those offenders. Recently, some of media has disclosed personal information of those offenders in order to satisfy the right of public awareness. From March 2010, police have passively exposed heinous offenders' face during the police custody. In other nations, there is no special law to disclose of heinous offender but police and media disclose their faces and personal information without any obstruction. Disclosure of heinous offender's information can take a place when public demand to know the offender's personal information is considered more important than protection of personal information of offender. The standard of disclosure of offender's personal information is when police obtain clear confession and evidence of crime. In addition, it can be also considered that disclosure of offender's personal information satisfy the necessity of the public interest. In March 2010, the Congress revised "the Special Act of Punishment of Serious Offense" and it makes possible to disclose heinous offender's personal information. However, this law has a procedural flaw that decision making is at the hand of prosecutor and police investigator. Since the constitutional principle of "Presumption of Innocence" can be restricted by the Court's decision, the disclosure of offender's personal information has to be decided by the Court so that it minimizes the infringement of offender's right. In fact, the writ of Hebeas Corpus(You have the body) is decided by the Court so that the disclosure of offender's personal information has to be decided by the Court too.