Itaewon murder case

On April 3, 1997, Cho Jung-pil, a 22-year-old student at Hongik University, was stabbed nine times in the neck and chest inside a restroom at a Burger King in the Itaewon district of Seoul, South Korea. Cho died from his injuries. Two teenagers, Arthur Patterson — the son of a U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea — and Edward Lee, a Korean-American, had been part of a larger group of about 20 young people at the restaurant that night. After the rest of the group left, Patterson and Lee went to the restroom, where they encountered Cho, who was stabbed to death.

The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division arrested Patterson on April 4, 1997, after receiving an anonymous report. Lee initially denied involvement to his father after being confronted following television coverage, but confessed on April 8, 1997, after consulting a lawyer. In the South Korean investigation and trial that followed — later described as botched — Lee was convicted of murder, while Patterson was convicted only of weapons possession. Lee was subsequently acquitted by the Supreme Court of South Korea due to insufficient evidence. Patterson, who had not been placed under a travel ban, fled to the United States in 1999. Cho's family later sued the South Korean government for negligence in allowing Patterson to leave the country, and the Supreme Court ruled in the family's favor.

The case drew renewed public attention in South Korea following the 2009 release of the feature film "The Case of Itaewon Homicide." South Korean prosecutors reopened the investigation, indicted Patterson for murder, and filed an extradition request with U.S. authorities. Patterson was arrested in Los Angeles in October 2011. During the U.S. proceedings, District Attorney Andrew Brown of the Central District of California stated his belief that Patterson and Lee had acted as accomplices, with evidence pointing to Patterson as the person responsible for the killing. South Korean prosecutors also said they had found evidence indicating Lee had handed Patterson the knife and instructed him to stab Cho. An acquaintance of Patterson's reportedly told MBC News that he had heard Patterson admit to killing Cho, and Lee reportedly wrote a letter of apology to Cho's mother.

A U.S. District Court ordered Patterson's extradition in October 2012, though a habeas corpus petition delayed the process. Patterson was extradited to Seoul in September 2015 and stood trial again, maintaining his innocence and asserting that Lee was the actual killer. In January 2016, nineteen years after the murder, Patterson was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison; the presiding judge noted that a life sentence would have been imposed but for Patterson's age — under 18 — at the time of the crime. Patterson appealed, but the sentence was upheld.