Feb. 3
JAPAN:
'80s serial killer Miyazaki's death sentence finalized
The death sentence for serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, 43, who was
convicted of killing 4 girls in 1988 and 1989, is final now that the
Supreme Court has rejected an objection filed by his counsel over a
technical detail.
The defense counsel had asked the top court to correct its ruling last
month upholding the death sentence issued by a lower court.
The top court's four-justice No. 3 petty bench agreed unanimously to
reject the objection, in which the defense had asked the Supreme Court to
correct the ruling it issued last month, bringing an end to the
43-year-old Miyazaki's 16-year trial process.
In a letter to Kyodo News just before the Jan. 17 Supreme Court ruling,
Miyazaki maintained his innocence on grounds of insanity, and said he
thinks he "did a good thing."
Throughout the trials, he did not apologize for the slayings.
The Code of Criminal Procedure allows a defendant or prosecutors to file
an objection against a Supreme Court decision but limits its scope to
minor points, including wording errors. The top court has never changed
its decision on focal points.
The 4 justices agreed in their decision that "no errors were found in the
ruling."
The defense team did not reveal which points they wanted corrected.
On Jan. 17, the top court ruled that an extreme character disorder could
be found in the defendant, but that he was not suffering from any mental
disorder that would make him unable to bear criminal responsibility.
The court said Miyazaki abducted and killed the 4 girls in Tokyo and
neighboring Saitama Prefecture "to satisfy his own sexual desire and
appetite to own videotapes with footage of corpses."
(source: The Japan Times)
INDIA:
Man awarded death sentence shifted to Naini central jail
A man recently sentenced to death by a fast track court here for the 2004
rape-murder of a minor was today shifted from the district jail to the
Naini (Allahabad) Central prison.
The prisoner, Raju alias Raja Ram, was shifted to the Naini jail in line
with a government decision of shifting such prisoners to a jail that
housed all arrangements for execution, District Jail authorities said
here.
Meanwhile, under the relevant provisions of the jail manual, the District
Jail Superintendent P N Tiwari has filed a petition in the Allahabad High
Court against the fast track court order, much to the anger of social
activists.
In a significant verdict, a fast track court in this Bundelkhand district
had on Tuesday last awarded capital punishment to a man accused of raping
and murdering a minor in 2004.
Prosecution said that Fast Track and District Sessions Judge, Balendu
Singh, after hearing twelve witnesses, mostly women, in the case held Raju
guilty of raping and then murdering Draupadi (10) in Ghutai area of the
district on November 22, 2004.
The judge then pronounced a death sentence for Raju, the prosecution
added.
(source: New Kerala)
CANADA:
Killer asks judge for death sentence
A 42-year-old Mississauga man who admitted to beating and strangling his
ex-wife to death has been placed under a suicide watch since asking a
Superior Court judge for a death sentence yesterday.
A depressed and tearful Vernon Nichols shocked the courtroom with his
request. His lawyer, Michael Moon, said his client has been placed under a
suicide watch as he awaits sentencing in his jail cell at the Maplehurst
Detention Centre.
"It was certainly one of the most intense (sentencing) hearings I have
ever attended, with the amount of remorse involved," Moon said. "It was
gut-wrenching. There were suicidal ideations throughout what he had to
say."
In December, Nichols pleaded guilty to second degree murder in the death
of his ex-wife, 42-year-old Margaret Smrekar, back on June 11, 2003.
The Smrekar family took little comfort in hearing that Nichols was
extremely remorseful for killing his estranged spouse.
"Listening to him speak in court and watching him break down and cry like
a baby was just a last ditch effort by him to get a lenient sentence. Is
this the same leniency he never provided my sister as she begged for her
life?," said Stan Smrekar, the dead woman's oldest brother, yesterday.
"During the past 2 1/2 years, he never showed one once of forgiveness.
It's too little, too late for our family."
Nichols maintained the killing of his ex-wife was "eating away in his
brain like a maggot," Moon said.
The murder conviction carries a an automatic life sentence, but Justice
Bruce Durno will decide Monday when Nichols will be eligible for parole.
The death penalty was abolished in Canada years ago. Both Crown prosecutor
Steve Sherriff and Moon have agreed the Nichols will serve at least 13
years before being eligible for release.
At yesterday's hearing, Smrekar's family members, including 16-year-old
daughter Jessica, delivered emotional statements to the judge.
Sherriff told the judge that Smrekar wanted to get a restraining order
against her former husband and had already changed the locks fearing
"something could happen to her," when he visited the woman's Credit
Woodlands townhouse on the morning of the murder and beat and strangled
her to death.
Sherriff said an autopsy revealed Smrekar sustained at least 13 blows to
the head during the "vicious" and "extensive" assault that started in the
kitchen and ended in the basement as Smrekar tried to flee. Court heard
the killing occurred while the couple's children, Jessica and Melissa,
then seven and 13, were in school just footsteps away from the home.
The couple were together for 20 years before separating a few years prior
to the murder.
The murder was an attempt by Nichols "to regain control of his family,"
said Sherriff, adding he had "limited" time with the children after the
separation.
Moon had told the judge his client believed Smrekar was trying to keep the
children from him. But, Nichols learned at his preliminary inquiry last
year that Smrekar in fact encouraged the father's relationship with his
children, and it was the girls who didn't want to see their father.
After killing Smrekar, Nichols called 9-1-1 to report "an accident" had
occurred at his ex-wife's home.
Court heard Nichols tried to kill himself by firing a bullet into his
chest while driving and being chased by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)
near Ottawa. But, Nichols survived the self-inflicted gunshot wound after
emergency surgery at an Ottawa-area hospital.
DNA and fingerprints at the scene of the crime linked Nichols to the
murder, court heard.
A Mississauga resident for nearly 40 years, Smrekar had been dating
another man, Gord, for nearly a year at the time of her murder.
"She was finally moving on with her life," said Tom, another 1 of her 4
brothers. "The 2 of them were planning a 1-year anniversary when she
died."
Smrekar, a computer analyst, devoted to volunteering at her children's
school, was a "positive, wonderful person," her 4 brothers said.
(source: Mississauga News)
