The enactment of the so called Taewan Law, which abolished the statute of limitations on murder cases, puts uncaught criminals and potential perpetrators on notice that they will not easily get away with their crimes and that they will eventually be caught and receive their just deserts.

The 25-year statute of limitations on murder cases had meant that murderers could get away scot-free if they could elude the authorities for 25 years. With the abolition of the statute of limitations, law enforcement authorities will now be able to keep the files open on unsolved murder cases. Unfortunately, the Taewan Law will not apply to the case of the 6-year-old boy for whom the law is named. The boy died in 1999 after an unknown assailant poured sulfuric acid all over his body.

The new law applies to murders with the potential for capital punishment committed since Aug. 1, 2000. The murderer who kidnapped and killed a middle school girl in 2003 and the criminal who murdered a female college student in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, will now be hounded until they are caught.

Since 2010, the statute of limitations had run out on an average of 3.2 unsolved murder cases each year. On Sunday, the National Police Agency announced a new guideline for handling unsolved murders. Murder cases that remain unsolved after five years will be assigned to a special team in respective provincial police agencies who will then continue investigating for another five years, after which a special committee will determine whether the case will continue be investigated or be classified as a long-term unsolved murder case. If active investigation is terminated, police will focus on maintaining records and evidence collected in the case, reopening the investigation when new evidence is discovered. This is crucial, as improvements in scientific investigation methods mean that even old evidence should be reexamined for new clues.

The elimination of the statute of limitations on murder cases punishable by death will not only bring justice to the victims and their long-suffering families, it will also act to deter future crimes by putting potential criminals on notice that they will be found and punished, and that the passage of time will not absolve them of their heinous crimes.