PrettyCarEye

Often when legal scandals break out in the K-pop/K-drama world, misinformation among the fandom run amok. People who are ignorant of the law allow themselves to form opinions of what justice should look like for the alleged perpetrators. People's opinions are given and taken as fact, when it is not. While everyone has a right to an opinion, it is dangerous when misinformation and outright false information are allowed to spread without being checked. I'm not a lawyer, but have studied law & am a keen observer of various justice systems around the world. I've developed a broader understanding of how the law works so I'm making this post for anyone who maybe confused as to how basic jurisprudence works.

When a person is accused of a crime the process of finding out whether the person is guilty or not guilty goes like this:

SUSPECT - a person who is accused by a fellow citizen of a crime and a complaint is filed with police. Once the police takes on the case, they come under suspicion of having committed the crime. The police then starts a probe to gather evidence.

CHARGED - when a person suspected of having committed a crime is formally accused by the justice system of committing said crime because the evidence gathered indicates that the person is likely guilty.

TRIED - when an accused person is given the opportunity to plead his/her innocence in a court of law (before trained & certified legal professionals). The accused has a right to dispute the charges brought against them, confront his/her accuser and present opposing evidence that proves their innocence.

CONVICTED - when the court after hearing evidence presented by both sides interprets the law (penal code) and determines that the accused was in violation of the law. Penalties for having violated law are often preset, meaning the judge or judges don't decide the punishment (for eg, prison or no prison). Judges (or juries where this system is used) can, however, decide the extent or length of punishment - for eg, whether a person gets probation or jail time, and if they get jail time, how much.

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POLICE - investigates the case and finds (or don't find) evidence that the accusations against the suspect are true. If the police finds sufficient evidence which they deem proves the accusations are true, they turn the case over to the prosecutor. In South Korea, police actually do not have authority to charge people with any crime; filing charges is the duty of the prosecutor's office.

PROSECUTOR - analyzes all the evidence the police gathered and determines whether there is enough to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If the evidence is deemed sufficient, the prosecutor takes out an indictment against the accused and charges them with the crime. The prosecutor petitions the court for the case to be heard and a court date for formal negotiations (aka trial) is set.

JUDGES - in SK there is a multi-judge system, meaning a panel of judges (3-4) preside over all cases and decide the defendant's guilt or innocence. The use of juries is generally not practiced in South Korea, although there are some odd exceptions (mainly used as an experiment). The panel of judges are usually all trained in the legal field, and are often likely to be former prosecutors or defense attorneys. In other countries where the multi-judge system is used, sometimes at least one of the judges - often called a 'dummy judge' or 'play judge' - is a lay person (who may not necessarily be trained in the law). I'm not sure if South Korea uses 'play judges'; I don't think so but I'm not 100% sure.

In the eyes of the law, all accused persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Which basically means a person can be guilty as hell, but if there is NO corroborating evidence to prove said guilt, that person is innocent.

However, a verdict of not guilty doesn't mean the accused person is innocent. It means based on the evidence provided, the court can not beyond any reasonable doubt conclude that the accused is in fact guilty.

Likewise a verdict of guilty doesn't mean the accused person is not innocent. It means based on the evidence provided, the court can not beyond any reasonable doubt conclude that the accused is in fact not guilty.

While justice - in & of itself - aims to be impartial and to protect the accused's right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty, social climate & public opinion will often influence the outcome of some trials even though it shouldn't.

Guess we'll never know ...

Why did you decide to drop PB?
I watched all 5 seasons, plus all the specials. I really loved this show because of the suspense. It always had me on the edge of my seat.

I remember watching OZ as a kid ... or teenager, rather. Yup, pretty brutal indeed, but that IS prison life in America, unfortunately.

I agree with you about the overall appeal of Prison Playbook. There wasn't much I didn't like, thoroughly enjoyed all the bromance and compassion these characters had for each other.

I read a comment below that speculates whether it was Ji-Won who set up the stint to entrap Looney as soon as he left prison.
I don't want to believe that as I felt like Ji-Won truly cared for Looney and was really looking forward to having him back, but the more I think about it the more this theory could be feasible.

When Looney didn't show up at the restaurant, Ji-Won went outside ... and started smoking nervously. He took out the ring from his pocket and a look of worry?guilt? appeared on his face as a cop car with sirens go by.

There are 2 ways his behaviour can be interpreted imo:

Maybe he wanted to test Looney by conspiring with the police to set a trap for him as soon as he left prison. If Looney passed the test, then the reward would be that he'd give him the couple ring and they live HEA. However, if he did indeed set Looney up, he would have known Looney relapsed when he didn't show up at the restaurant. Maybe that's why he went outside, started to smoke to calm his nerves ... the look that came across his face when the cop car went by would be guilt, knowing what he'd done.

The other theory is that he went outside to keep watch, because he didn't want to give up hope that Looney would show up at the last minute. As he nervously waits, he smokes a cigarette to calm his nerves. Heartbroken, he looks at the couple ring he plans to give Looney. As a cop car with sirens go by, he looks on in trepidation and worry, wondering if Looney might be in there.

My favourite character aside from our adorable, but somewhat dimwitted lead was Captain Na. LOL ... mr Straight Laced & By The Book! I laughed every time he was on screen because I knew he was about to piss someone off, including me! haha

Have you tried Prison Break? OZ is an old classic, but PB is the prison show of all prison shows within this generation, I think. The first season was the best, second season was good, third decent ... then it started going a bit downhill from the 4th season onward, but overall it is still one of the best prison shows out there.

I noticed that Prison Playbook took a lot of its cues from Prison Break, but as you mentioned this show is a lot less hard-nosed than most western prison shows. I think the collectivistic nature of Korean culture gave the show a completely different dynamic & vibe. With all the bonds and friendships formed among various prisoners & correction officers, it didn't feel like such a scarily terrifying place as prison life in Prison Break was. Sure, there were some dangerous characters, but most of all this prison felt more like juvey, than a real prison.

The first inmate boss of the wood shop crew. You might recall a scene in the drama where he and his cronies ambushed our lead guy & tried to rape him, but Lee Joon-Ho (ML's best friend) came in just in time to save him.

This despicable character returned later on in the show and tried to extort Jæ Hyuk for $300 000 ... plus interest. The 'interest' being Jæ Hyuk having a sexual liaison with him in order to save his sister from being attacked by his gang.

How can you make a comment like this and not leave the name of the movie? And which friend of Je Hyuk are you talking about? Je Hyuk had many friends.

Oh lord, here we go again. Why is there always someone on every 'not exclusively romance' drama page complaining about the romance and perceived lack of chemistry? A show can't incorporate different genres and still be good? This drama is about relationships ... people with love lives. Moreover, it is very normal for guys in prison to think about their wives or girlfriends. It would be odd if the drama did not show that at all. I respect your right to have an opinion, but the one track mindedness of this common complaint - about a show having too much romance - meh. Just get over yourselves, already.

Unfortunately drug addiction is a beast of a habit to overcome. Relapses among those who are trying to get clean is common. Many don't make it. I was very disappointed too to see that happen to him again, but knowing what I know about drug addicts, I wasn't very surprised. I wish the writers would have chosen a different outcome for him. Didn't have to be a happy ending ... but not one where he relapses so quickly. Like you, that really broke my heart to watch because I liked Looney so much and was really rooting for him to pull through.

Wow, what an interesting perspective. I'd've never thought to think of it that way and to be honest .... I'm not sure I agree 100% with your assessment of the situation. The mother already admitted, twice, that she was the one who turned Looney in.

I think Ji-Won really cared for Looney and really wanted him to kick the habit so they can have a life together free of drugs. I didn't get the impression that he knew Looney relapsed as soon as he was released from prison. He seemed genuinely disappointed & heartbroken because Looney did not turn up.

Moreover, even if he was the one who did turn Looney in, I don't hate him for it. Just like I wouldn't & don't hate his mother if she was the one who turned him in. His drug problem was clearly spiraling out of control for them to take such drastic action. They/she probably thought it was the only way Looney would get help.

When my brother was a teenager he was very rebellious and hang out with the wrong crowd. My mom took him to the police station herself and told the cops to lock him up. They did and to this day, my brother is still grateful to my mom that she took action in that way. All the guys he used run with are now either dead or drug addicts, while my brother is an upstanding citizen with a family of his own.

So whether it was Ji-Won or the mother, I think it was good that they turned him in. He was able to get clean for a few months. Relapses are normal amongst drug users; it doesn't mean that they can't try to get clean again. As long as they never give up & keep on getting up every time they fall down. Family support & an insurmountable level of understanding & patience is needed to help people like Looney pull through against the demon that is drug addiction. Hopefully, even though he fell off the wagon so quickly, he will overcome ... and one day, one day ... he'll be free of the habit for good.

Yeah, agreed. The ending was alright ... but also felt a bit anti-climatic.

Yes, the present was that Ji-Won wanted to give Looney a couple ring ... and make their relationship official in front of the parents.

Poor Looney, though. I'm actually not mad at him because he relapsed. Drug addiction is a notoriously hard habit to kick. In prison he, ironically enough, had a lot of love and support that gave him strength to hold on - something he perceived as not having out in the free world. He was also motivated by the fact that Ji-Won was out there waiting for him. The prison was in a way a protective cocoon, but the minute he stepped out into the free world old temptations return. We see this happen in real life all the time.

On another note, a part of me wonder if this was what he planned all along. Notice when he stepped outside the gates of the prison his whole demeanour changed when he said he can't believe they actually listened to him (about waiting for him at the restaurant). I really don't want to think he was faking his recovery in prison, but looks like he may have been. This may have been why he told his family & Ji-Won not to meet him at the gate, but at the restaurant. If it's one thing I've learned about people battling drug addiction is that they're very good liars, not because they're inherently bad people, but because the drugs have such a strong hold on them that they'll sell their own organs just to get a hit.

LOL, soooooo cliche & typical in a k-drama! Some kid or the parents always ruin the damn fun! Grrr...

It's so odd that this hasn't been subbed when there's a popular actor in the cast and it's about a popular genre of music with only 6 episodes. What the heck is going on? It's been months since its release.

Just so you're aware, citing Google as a credible source for your 'research' hardly indicates the stellar level of education you claim to have. Google is a search engine, not a scholarly document on which true research findings are derived.

But let's for argument's sake address the stats you mentioned. Let's take them at face value. First of all, show me where it said these findings are true for the *majority* of victims. It clearly states 22% & 23% ... that's not a majority.

Second: "These rates of suicide attempts increased considerably among people who had experienced *multiple* incidents of sexual (42.9%) or physical assault (73.5%)."

Where is the evidence that Goo Hara experienced MULTIPLE incidents of sexual and physical assault at the hands of Choi Jung Bum? Where is it?

Choi Jung Bum was charged & tried for one incidence of assault. One. Not multiple incidences. He was NOT charged or tried for sexual assault at all. You know why? Because NO sexual assault occurred. They had a *consensual* sexual relationship.

What he was charged & tried for threatening to distribute sexual content involving the victim, presumably without her consent. A threat to distribute sexual content and sexual assault ARE TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS. Your insistence on conflating the two is problematic asf! And very much indicative of WHY I continue to school you on how the law works. You can not convict someone based on what you FEEL he did! You can only convict him for what he ACTUALLY did, provided there is sufficient evidence.

Reading & comprehension is important when you're going to get on your high horse about topics you clearly know nothing about. It is a shocking testimony to your blatant & total lack of education, esp on matters of jurisprudence. Yet you have the temerity to even dare comment on my presumed lack of education as you continue to put your own blatant ignorance on blast. Based on the way you argue, I think it is quite clear who is lacking in education here. So go ahead and delude yourself; you're likely not fooling anyone who is *truly* educated!

Of course, you didn't read what I wrote. You didn't even have to admit it. I knew based on how you conveniently chose to ignore EVERY LAST ONE OF MY TALKING POINTS. People who argue entirely based on feelings & emotions are hardly ever capable of processing logic and facts. So you block it out in order not to activate your rational mind.

You continue to fly off the handle about something I don't & didn't even disagree with you on. I do wholly agree with you that South Korea's toxic patriarchal culture is bad for all involved, both men and women. However, you attacked Hessa for simply trying to state the facts of the case. Then you want to indict & convict people for things they weren't even charged/tried/convicted for or have people thrown in jail without evidence.

All I'm saying is that as much as I understand your righteous indignation, that is not how the law and justice system work. People who are accused of a crime have a right to due process, and all who are accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
It doesn't matter how you or I FEEL about the situation. THAT is the reality.

The fact remains that this girl was likely not murdered. She died by her own hand. In the eyes of the law, perpetrators are held accountable for THEIR actions (meaning the actual crime they committed), not how the victims respond to it. Therefore, while Choi Jung Bum's abuse likely contributed to her distress, he is still not guilty of killing her. Stating that FACT is not "downplaying or absolving him" of his contribution to her demise. It is just a simple FACT. Why is that so hard for you to comprehend?

Based on how cold and standoffish she was to him, I guess she had mentally separated herself from him a long time ago. But they weren't officially broken up. Ki-Seok wasn't aware that they were broken up. In fact, when she told him they needed to take a break, he asked her straight up if she wanted to break up with him. She said no. Later when he asked her, twice, if there was someone else because he sensed there was something off about her attitude. Again, she said no, both times. She even denied it when her sister asked her if there was another man. She has been in denial all along. She clearly no longer loved Ki-Seok, haven't for a while it seems, but instead of breaking it off, she was holding on to him in case no one better came along.

It's the lies and deception that makes it cheating, not the fact that nothing physical happened between her & Ji-Ho. If she wasn't doing anything wrong she wouldn't feel compelled to hide their 'friendship' from Ki-Seok or her friends/family. After all, it's natural that they would have been friends since the basketball matches made them all cross paths. However, she wanted it hidden because she knew what she was doing is wrong (& very few boyfriends would accept it).

Ki-Seok isn't perfect - I kinda sense he's the possessive type. The type who won't accept that you're done with him unless he decides he's done with you. Based on their relationship dynamic they seemed bound for splitville anyway, even if Ji-Ho didn't appear. Both seem to be dating one another out of habit, rather than genuine affection for each other. He, in particular, seems content to just date Jeong-In, likely until someone 'better' comes along (only he didn't anticipate that she'd find someone else before him). He certainly wasn't in any rush to propose marriage to her. Did he even propose or did it only come up because people around him were pushing him to start thinking about marriage? Now that Jeong-In has found Ji-Ho, naturally that's going to piss him off because he's been sidelined before he could do the sidelining.

So yeah, I understand his psychology and his not so perfect motivations, but I still feel bad for him. I think no matter who you are, it sucks being cheated on. It hurts. And in general he doesn't seem like a horrible person. Yes, he has a big ego & will likely try to make Jeong-In's life difficult because he wants to lash out at her for cheating on him. That said, he seems like a good friend & hyung to his peers & he treated Jeong-In more or less decently throughout their relationship (as far as I know up to ep 8). So in other words, he's just a flawed human being like everyone else. Let's see if my opinions of him remain the same by the end of the drama! :)

Well, cheating is not just about the physical. But also very much about the emotional (some people even think this is the worse kind of cheating).

Being attracted to someone else while being in a relationship is, I guess, normal. But telling lies, texting another man on the pretext that you're 'friends' when you darn well know you both have feelings for each other, sneaking around behind your boyfriend's back to meet him whilst telling the boyfriend that you're at home in bed. Being cold, standoffish and deliberately trying to pick fights with boyfriend ... all of it, cheating.

Guess she had to spend some time around Ji-ho to realize her feelings for Ki-Seok was done and dead. At the same time, though, she wasn't that into him from the beginning. Even her friend mentioned how unaffectionate and distant they were with each other (or rather she was to him). Furthermore, every time Ki-Seok tried to lighten the mood she'd twist his words and get mad at him for saying something he didn't say. To be honest I kinda felt bad for him, but I've only watched up to ep 8 of 16 eps so we'll see how things develop.

Technically she did cheat. Cheating is not just about the physical. But also very much about the emotional (some people even think this is the worse kind of cheating).

Being attracted to someone else while being in a relationship is, I guess, normal. But telling lies, texting another man on the pretext that you're 'friends' when you darn well know you both have feelings for each other, sneaking around behind your boyfriend's back to meet him whilst telling the boyfriend that you're at home in bed. Being cold, standoffish and deliberately trying to pick fights with boyfriend ... all of it, cheating.

Guess she had to spend some time around Ji-ho to realize her feelings for Ki-Seok is done and dead. At the same time, though, she wasn't that into him from the beginning. Even her friend mentioned how unaffectionate and distant they were with each other (or rather she was to him). Furthermore, every time Ki-Seok tried to lighten the mood she'd twist his words and get mad at him for saying something he didn't say. To be honest I kinda felt bad for him, but I've only watched up to ep 8 of 16 eps so we'll see how things develop.