Jan. 13
JAPAN:
High court upholds death sentence in murder-for-insurance case
The Tokyo High Court upheld Thursday a death sentence imposed on a former
moneylender for murdering 2 men and attempting to murder a 3rd for life
insurance money.
Shigeru Yagi, 55, of Honjo, Saitama Prefecture, has pleaded not guilty of
murder and attempted murder charges. He appealed the death penalty given
by the Saitama District Court.
(Kyodo News)
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Death sentence against multiple insurance murderer upheld
A 55-year-old moneylender failed to escape from death row on Thursday when
the Tokyo High Court upheld a ruling ordering that he be sentenced to
death for murdering two men in a bid to collect hefty insurance payouts.
The moneylender, Shigeru Yagi, was convicted in the Saitama District Court
in 2002 of conspiring with a 37-year-old woman and other people to murder
victims using poisonous aconite and large doses of cold medicine.
Yagi's lawyers claimed that the charges against him were false and argued
against the testimony of the woman, who said he was guilty. They said
evidence proving the cause of death of the two men was also insufficient.
Prosecutors countered that during the appeal, the man was merely repeating
claims he brought forward in the district court ruling, and asked the high
court to scrap the appeal.
The man's lawyers presented about 390 articles of alleged evidence, but
Presiding Judge Masaru Suda rejected most of them, ending the appeal in
just 2 hearings.
According to the district court ruling, Yagi conspired with the woman, who
received life imprisonment for her part in the crime, and other people to
kill a 45-year-old worker by poisoning him with an aconite-laced bun in
1995 to collect about 300 million yen in insurance benefits.
He was also convicted of murdering a 61-year-old former pachinko parlor
worker by giving him large amounts of cold medicine and strong alcoholic
drinks between 1998 and 1999.
The district trial was a model case for an early conclusion to court
cases, ending in just 1 1/2 years after 90 hearings.
(source: Mainichi Daily News)
