Brain images will be taken and used as evidence at the appeal trial of Park Chun-poong (55, Chinese) who is on trial for the ‘mutilation murder of Paldal mountain’. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov.10 (Korea Bizwire) – Brain images will be taken and used as evidence at the appeal trial of Park Chun-poong (55, Chinese) who is on trial for the ‘mutilation murder of Paldal mountain’.
The case marks the first time that actual footage of the brain will be used in a trial rather than the results of a psychiatric test conducted by a medical specialist.
The Seoul High Court revealed it had requested a psychopathic valuation of Park’s brain at Ehwa Woman’s University’s Brain Perception Science Lab using Park’s brain images.
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), this psychopathic valuation records and analyzes the parts of the brain that are activated when questions are asked and pictures are shown.
The main purpose is to verify any differences Park might have in the periphery orbita, which is the area of the brain right behind the eye. In the previous trial, Park testified that his right eye is a glass eye, because he injured his right eye when he was young.
Through the psychopathic valuation, prosecutors intend to establish the state of mind Park was in when he committed the crime, and where the motive came from. They plan to investigate Park’s intent, and reflect the results in the weighing of the offense.
In the first trial Park was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the court considering him as a psychopath that intended to commit the murder.
Park was arrested for strangling his girlfriend to death on November 26, 2014, and for dumping body parts in five different locations after brutally dismembering the corpse.
However, he has insisted from the first trial that the death was an accident, and unintended.
By Francine Jung (francine.jung@kobizmedia.co.kr)
