[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 16




JAPAN:

Death penalty to stand for man over 2010 murder as minor


A death sentence given to a man convicted of murdering 2 women and seriously 
injuring another man in 2010 when he was 18 is set to be finalized after the 
Supreme Court on Thursday upheld lower court rulings.

The case of Yutaro Chiba, now 24, marks the 1st time capital punishment has 
been given to a minor under Japan's lay judge trial system that began in 2009.

In handing down the ruling, the top court's first petty bench said the 
defendant committed the crime based on a "very selfish motive" as he was 
determined to kill anyone who sabotaged his plan to run away with his former 
girlfriend.

According to rulings by the Sendai district and high courts, Chiba was guilty 
of stabbing to death his former girlfriend's older sister Misa Nambu, 20, and 
her 18-year-old friend Mikako Omori, and seriously injuring a man who was with 
them at the time of the crime on Feb. 10 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.

"Even if his age (as a minor) and having no criminal record is taken into 
account . . . his criminal responsibility is grave," the Supreme Court said, 
indicating that the death penalty cannot be avoided in line with the top court 
standards set in 1983 in the case of Norio Nagayama.

Chiba is the 7th person whose death penalty has effectively been finalized for 
a crime committed by a minor since the so-called Nagayama standard which, in 
applying capital punishment, took into account factors such as the number of 
victims, brutality and social impact of the crimes.

Nagayama was a death row inmate who was hanged in 1997 for killing 4 people 
when he was 19.

On Thursday, all 5 justices on the bench, presided by Justice Naoto Otani, 
unanimously rejected the appeal against Chiba's death sentence.

In terms of murders of 2 people for a person under 20 at the time of the 
crimes, Chiba will be the 2nd to be sentenced to death, following a man 
convicted of murdering a woman and her baby girl in Hikari, Yamaguchi 
Prefecture, when he was 18.

Outside court, Chiba's chief lawyer, Hiroyuki Kusaba, criticized the ruling as 
being unacceptable.

The court 'does not at all take into consideration how the defendant's 
environment affected his character, and also does not give any explanation 
about this," Kusaba said, referring to his client's difficult childhood.

According to court testimonies by Chiba, his mother, and others, Chiba was 
raised by his mother after his parents divorced when he was 5. His mother, who 
repeatedly divorced and remarried, suffered violence from her boyfriend and 
later became addicted to alcohol. He was then raised by his grandmother's side.

As demanded by prosecutors, a panel of three professional and 6 citizen judges 
gave the death penalty to Chiba at the district court in November 2010.

The court said it cannot just take into account his age when he committed the 
crime, given the brutality of the crime and the impact in terms of number of 
victims.

The Sendai High Court upheld the lower court's decision.

Chiba's lawyers had sought leniency for their client to avoid the death 
penalty, arguing he was "immature" at the time and that his crime was "not 
premeditated."

(source: The Japan Times)