Korea's jury system is off to a smooth start after the country's first-ever jury reached a unanimous verdict, which was later approved by judges, in a robbery trial.

Brushing off concerns over a low participation rate, 86 juror candidates, or 37 percent of those summoned to serve, showed up at the Daegu District Court. Twelve of them were selected for the jury.

The jury system is part of Korea's ongoing judiciary reform to reflect common sense and shift to forensic testimony and evidence from paperwork.

Unlike in the United States, a Korean jury's verdict is not binding. The jurors can also suggest a sentence, something not allowed in the U.S. The suggested sentence is also non-binding.

Jurors were upbeat over the new trial system that allows citizens from all walks of life to take part in the proceedings, which have been dominated until now by the elite group of judges, prosecutors and lawyers.

"The trial process was so interesting that I didn't even know how the trial ended," Kim Jin-cheol, 39, a self-employed man who came to the court, said. "It feels good that our judicary system is opening and evolving to have citizens participate."

"I will come again if they call me again," Woo Seok-gu, 33, an office worker, said. "At one time, my heart was heavy from having to decide whether other person was guilty or innocent."

As the suspect pleaded guilty and explained his unprivileged past, emotions ran high in the jury, an unusual scene in Korean courtrooms.

The 27-year-old suspect, an employee of a quick delivery service, was charged with robbery and assault after his motorbike caused a car crash in December. To get money to compensate for the accident, he went to the house of an elderly woman and tried to rob her, and started to beat her when she resisted. After the woman started bleeding, he gave up the robbery attempt, confessed to her neighbors and tried to take her to the hospital. Police arrested him at the scene.

The defendant's sister, carrying a baby on her back, asked for leniency, telling the jury that her family was poor and the siblings had to quit school early.

The jury reached a unanimous verdict sentencing him to two years and six months in prison, which was suspended for four years.
 
If tried in the traditional judge system, the convict could have faced a jail term with those charges.

"The court decided to accept it, based on its judgement that the jurors' opinion does not contravene the Constitution and the law," Judge Yun Jong-gu said in the ruling.

"I didn't expect a suspended prison sentence would be given in a unanimous verdict. The jury trial was more helpful to my client than the judge trial," Jun Jung-ho, the court-appointed lawyer for the suspect, said.

Five more jury trials are currently scheduled over the next few weeks across the country, including a murder case on a disabled man in the Cheongju District Court on Monday. Defendants charged with felonies such as murder, bribery involving over 100 million won ($100,000) or manufacturing food or drugs detrimental to health can request a jury trial.