The Han twins

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

was a case of

attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seven ye ...

of Sunny Han by her identical twin sister Jeena "Jeen" Han, occurring on November 6, 1996 in

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...

. Both are Korean-born American citizens. It quickly became a sensationalized story in the media. The case brought together the folkloric themes of surviving a broken family through a close sisterly bond; of rival twin sisters, one "good" and one "evil"; and of the fall from grace of a child of promise, as the immigrant Jeena Han had been with her twin her high school co-

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

. Jeena Han recruited two teenage youths to capture her sister at home, but the plot went awry and the two were quickly taken into custody by local police. The jury reached their verdict as to each defendant on November 20, 1997, after ten hours' deliberation. Han was convicted of all charges including one count of conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of burglary (one in the first and another in the second degree), two counts of false imprisonment, and one count of a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The jury also found that Han was armed with a firearm during the commission of each offense. Jeen Han was imprisoned at the

Central California Women's Facility Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) is a female-only California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison located in Chowchilla, California. It is across the road from Valley State Prison. CCWF is the largest female cor ...

in Chowchilla, Calif., in 1998 with a sentence of 26 years to life in prison. She was given an additional year because the jury found the firearm enhancement to be true. Twenty years later, in May 2018, she was granted parole by California's Board of Parole. Jeen received support from Sunny for parole.

Aftermath

In 1999, the case was featured in the book ''Evil Twins'' by John Glatt. In November 1999, an ''

American Justice ''American Justice'' is an American criminal justice television program airing on the A&E Network. From 1992–2005, the show was hosted by television reporter Bill Kurtis. The show features interesting or notable cases, such as the murder ...

'' documentary titled "Sister Against Sister: The Twin Murder Plot" aired on A&E, covering the sensational details of the case. The program was hosted by

Bill Kurtis Bill Kurtis (born William Horton Kuretich; September 21, 1940), is an American television journalist, television producer, narrator, and news anchor. Kurtis was studying to become a lawyer in the 1960s, when he was asked to fill in on a tempora ...

. In 2001, the case was profiled on ''The Investigators'' under the title "Evil Twin". In 2005, ''

Snapped ''Snapped'' is an American true crime television series produced by Jupiter Entertainment. The series depicts high profile or bizarre cases of women accused of murder. Each episode outlines the motivation for murder, whether it be revenge agains ...

'', a series about true crime on the

Oxygen Network Oxygen (branded on air as Oxygen True Crime) is an American television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming unit of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast, through its Cable Entertainment Group subsidiary. The channel primar ...

, ran an episode about Jeen's plot to kill her twin sister and take over her life. In 2012, this story became the focus of the pilot episode of the ''

Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Ameri ...

'' show, "Evil Twins".

References

External links

Family feud leads to twin's murder plot
" ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' at ''

Beloit Daily News The ''Beloit Daily News'' is a daily newspaper that has served Beloit, Wisconsin and the stateline area of Rock County, Wisconsin and Winnebago County, Illinois since 1848. The newspaper was owned by Duane Hagadone and the Hagadone Newspaper Group ...

''. Monday November 18, 1996.
'Evil twin' found guilty of plotting to kill sister
" ''

'' at ''

''. Friday November 21, 1997.
Court of Appeal verdict The People v. Jeen Young Han et al. 2/25/00

JAILED SUSPECT SAYS TWIN SISTER LIED ABOUT MURDER PLOT.
''

'' at the ''

Los Angeles Daily News The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado-based Digital First Media. The offices of the ''Dai ...

''. November 18, 1996.
Snapped - Jeena Han"Evil Twins" true crime paperback - Amazon.com
*Hernandez, Greg.
Woman Gets 26 Years to Life in Plot to Kill Identical Twin
" ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''. May 9, 1998. *Hernandez, Greg.
Twin Gets 26 Years to Life for Murder Plot
" ''

''. May 9, 1998.
Woman Jailed 26 Years to Life
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. May 10, 1998.
Orange County Register - Evil Twin Murder Plot‘Evil twin’ granted parole after serving nearly 2 decades in prison for plot to kill sister in Irvine
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Han Twins Murder Conspiracy American people convicted of attempted murder American people of Korean descent Crimes in California Attempt Conspiracy (criminal) 1974 births Living people