Attorney on Mission

[Anchor Lead]

Ordinary citizens are coming to the rescue of an attorney, who had represented wrongfully convicted people for free, as he himself faced bankruptcy.

[Pkg]

The office of Attorney Park Jun-yeong, dubbed a retrial specialist, is flooded with letters from inmates claiming their innocence.

[Soundbite] "Please take my case and prove me innocent. Please save me."

Retrial cases are much more difficult to win because original rulings have to be overturned. Moreover, Park represented his clients without getting a dime, which nearly got him evicted from his office.

[Soundbite] Park Jun-yeong(Attorney) : "It was hopeless and frankly I was devastated. I tear up when I sit here at night at the thought of my children. I thought a lot about whether this was the right thing to do."

Driven near bankruptcy, Park posted his story online and so far more than 10,000 people came together to donate over 270,000 dollars for his cause. He passed the national bar exam just five years after he had graduacted from high school. He says it is the mission of judicial officers to save victims of wrongful convictions.

[Soundbite] Park Jun-yeong(Attorney) : "I saw many sad situations. I thought it would be greedy of me to just make money and live a stable life."

Park said now the social atmosphere is more accepting of the truth and vowed to continue his activities by setting up a non-profit foundation.