In a significant legal development, the Gwangju High Court's Haenam branch has exonerated the late Jeong (66), who died while serving a life sentence, of the charges related to the tragic drowning of his wife in a reservoir in Jindo, South Korea. The court ruled that the evidence presented by the prosecution was insufficient to conclusively prove that Jeong had intentionally murdered his wife. The judge noted that while the presence of life insurance motives and financial difficulties were acknowledged, they did not equate to proof of malice. Furthermore, the ruling found procedural faults in the vehicle seizure process that collected evidence against Jeong, deeming the evidence obtained therefrom inadmissible.

The case originally dates back to July 9, 2003, when Jeong was accused of crashing his truck into the Myunggeum Reservoir, resulting in the death of his wife, who was a passenger at the time. Immediately following the plunge, Jeong managed to escape, while his wife succumbed to her injuries. The police initially suspected foul play based on the potential insurance payout of 930 million won, yet they could not gather enough evidence for a murder charge, which led to Jeong being charged only under traffic accident laws. However, the prosecution later escalated the charge to murder, leading to multiple unsuccessful appeals from Jeong until a recent police revisit of the evidence brought the case back under scrutiny.

Public interest was rekindled in 2020 when a police officer from Chungnam Police Agency raised concerns about the investigation's integrity and initiated a petition to the Blue House, calling for a reevaluation of the case. This retrial not only underscores the complexities of legal proceedings in cases of alleged murder but also raises questions about the robustness of the evidence required for such serious convictions, contributing to ongoing discussions about the justice system in South Korea.