The Face of Man
Thursday, May 7, 2026
Photo by Hansjörg Keller / Unsplash
A Seoul judge ruled against the wife of a former president. Eight days later, his body was found near the court.
What's happening
Judge Shin Jong-o, 57, was found unconscious near the Seoul High Court compound around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday and pronounced dead at a hospital. Eight days earlier, on April 28, Shin had presided over the appeal of Kim Keon Hee, 53, wife of impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol, in the Deutsch Motors stock-manipulation and bribery case. He raised her sentence from the trial court's 20 months to four years and a 50 million won fine. A Seocho district investigator said there was "no sign of foul play." Korean press reported a handwritten apology in his pocket, unrelated to the trial; police later disputed the note's existence.
What the Text says
Moses gives Israel its first instruction for judges as the people prepare to live under law rather than under his own voice.
Deuteronomy 1:17You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.
The Hebrew construction is precise. Lo taguru mippene ish, do not be afraid before the face of a man. The verse does not pretend the fear is irrational. It assumes the judge will face it. Powerful defendants have faces, and those faces look back at the bench. The command is not that the judge feel nothing. The command is that the judge rule anyway, because ki hammishpat lelohim hu, the judgment is God's. The verdict travels up before it lands. A judge who refuses partiality toward the powerful is not relieved of the cost. Scripture only insists the cost is not the highest authority in the room.
The reflection
We do not know what happened to Shin Jong-o between April 28 and the early hours of May 6. The police statements conflict. The reports of a note conflict. What is on the record is a ruling against the wife of a former president, and a body found near the courthouse where the ruling was issued.
The text is older than this case and will outlast it. It tells judges not to fear the face of a man, and it tells the rest of us that the people we ask to do this work carry something we have not measured.