If a Majority Vote Could Kill Criminals? The Korean Drama 'National Death Penalty Vote'

A suspicious text message arrives one day.

“Would you like to participate in the death penalty vote?”

A text message about a death penalty vote arrives for people who are living ordinary lives in society after receiving relatively light punishments for heinous crimes. If you receive such a text message, what choice would people make?

The drama “The Killing Vote” is a crime and mystery genre drama that aired in South Korea in 2023. People who receive the death penalty vote text message watch a video created by an unknown figure called ‘Gaetal’. The video explains the crime committed by the criminal who is the target of the vote, reveals that the Korean judiciary handed down an insufficient punishment, and shows how comfortable the criminal’s daily life is, encouraging people to vote.

Actor Park Hae-jin plays the role of detective Kim Moo-chan, who is tracking down the perpetrator of the death penalty vote, ‘Gaetal’. Kim Moo-chan has good investigative skills, but he has a past where he used to take over cases handled by other detectives for promotion or stuck to an overly aggressive investigation method. 8 years ago, in an attempt to hastily apprehend the culprit in a kidnapping and murder case, he manipulated evidence, which resulted in him losing the real criminal.

Kwon Seok-ju, the father of the victim from the case Kim Moo-chan handled 8 years ago, suffers from grief and anger over the loss of his daughter, and ultimately takes revenge by killing the criminal. Later, while imprisoned, Kwon Seok-ju becomes a suspect in the ‘Gaetal’ case and becomes the subject of investigation. Actor Park Sung-woong, who often appears in Korean noir genre films, played the role of Kwon Seok-ju.

Joo-hyun, who is in charge of cyber investigations at the special investigation headquarters established to investigate the National Death Penalty Vote case, is a person who lost her parents to a drunk driver in the past but suffered because the perpetrator was not properly punished due to insufficient evidence. Like Kwon Seok-ju, she could have taken personal revenge, but she decided to become a police officer to prevent others from suffering the same injustice she did.

In episode 1 of “The Killing Vote”, a death penalty vote is held for a sex offender. ‘Gaetal’ shows a scene where a criminal who produced and sold a large amount of illegal sexually exploitative material targeting children and adolescents, making a huge fortune, continues to produce such material even after receiving a light punishment and being released from prison, and presents the death penalty vote.

This incident is based on the ‘n-th room case’ and ‘Welcome to Video case’ that actually happened in South Korea. The founder of ‘Welcome to Video’, an illegal website that shared child sexual abuse material, received a very light sentence of 1 year and 6 months in prison, and people expressed a lot of dissatisfaction with the court’s decision. “The Killing Vote” can be seen as a drama that reflects the sentiment of South Koreans who are angry about the light punishments given by the judiciary.

Although the death penalty system exists in South Korea, no executions have been carried out since 1997, and as of 2023, 60 death row inmates are serving their sentences in prison. While opinions are divided on the death penalty system, which only exists in form, “The Killing Vote” raises the question of whether the death penalty system can be a means of achieving justice.

The drama “The Killing Vote” is based on the webtoon of the same name and can be watched on Wavve, Netflix, and Prime Video.