[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 22



JAPAN:

Age focus of Japanese death penalty case


A high court in Japan handed down a death sentence Tuesday in the retrial
of a man who killed 2 people as a juvenile.

The Hiroshima high court sentenced a 27-year-old unnamed man to death for
the death of a 23-year-old woman and her 11-month-old daughter in 1999.

Yushide Narazaki, the presiding judge in the case, said the man's age at
the time and the claims the crime wasn't premeditated "do not constitute
reasons to avoid capital punishment," Kyodo reported Tuesday.

The Japanese supreme court ordered a retrial reasoning age considerations
where inappropriate in determining the original life sentence.

Japanese law puts a sentencing limit of the a life term in cases involving
juveniles but a 1983 case says grievous acts such as several murders or
motives could place capital punishment into consideration regardless of
age.

(source: United Press International)

********************

Mother, baby killer sentenced to hang


A JAPANESE court has sentenced a man to hang for killing a young mother
and her baby girl when he was a minor, in a high-profile ruling hailed by
the bereaved husband.

The Hiroshima High Court ordered capital punishment for the man who was 18
years old when he broke into an apartment where he strangled Yayoi
Motomura, 23, and her 11-month-old daughter Yuka in 1999.

The defendant, who cannot be named because of his age at the time of the
crime, was also convicted of raping Yayoi after her death.

Calling the crime "cruel and unhuman,'' judge Yasuhide Narazaki said the
man lacked regret.

"He failed to squarely face up to the gravity of the crime and just tried
hard to avoid the death penalty,'' the judge said, as quoted by Jiji
Press.

"I cannot help but decide on the death penalty.''

The defence counsel immediately appealed.

The trial has become one of the most high-profile cases in Japan due to
controversy over handing the death penalty to such a young person.

The age of adulthood is 20 in Japan, although the death penalty can be
given to anyone aged 18 or older. The man was 18 years and one month old
at the time of crime.

Two courts had earlier given the man life sentences, pointing out his age
and that the crime was not premeditated. But Japan's Supreme Court in 2006
sent the case back to lower courts, taking issue with the reasons for
avoiding the death penalty.

Yayoi's husband, Hiroshi Motomura, had sought the death penalty.

"It was the right ruling. I feel grateful to the high court,'' he said in
a nationally televised press conference.

"While I think it is fully possible for him to be rehabilitated, that is
different from the gravity of his crime,'' Mr Motomura said.

Japan is the only major industrial nation other than the United States to
use the death penalty.

Courts have been handing down a growing number of death sentences, which
enjoy wide public support.

(source: Melbourne Herald Sun)

****************

Man says death penalty handed down on killer of his wife, daughter is fair


A 32-year-old man whose wife and 11-month daughter were murdered in April
1999 described the death penalty handed down on the convicted perpetrator
-- aged just 18 at the time of the killing -- as a fair ruling.

"A proper ruling has been handed down," the 32-year-old man, Hiroshi
Motomura, said in a news conference after the ruling.

The defendant, who had faced charges of murder and rape resulting in
death, was handed the death penalty in a ruling at the Hiroshima High
Court on Tuesday. His name has been withheld because he was a minor at the
time.

Motomura appeared at the news conference dressed in a suit, and spoke
about the death penalty with a calm expression.

"I am thankful that a ruling like this has been handed down in a nation
ruled by law," he said.

Commenting on the defendant, he added, "I want him to stand up and accept
the death penalty without hesitation."

(source: Mainichi Daily News)






IRAQ:

Hussein Henchman Has Heart Attack


Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who is known as Chemical Ali,
has been taken to an American military hospital after suffering a heart
attack while in custody awaiting execution, officials said. Maj. Brad
Leighton, an American military spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed that Mr.
Majid was in a hospital after "falling ill," saying only that he was "in a
stable condition."

He was admitted on Sunday, said the officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his condition.

Mr. Majid was among 3 of Mr. Hussein's lieutenants who were sentenced to
death by an Iraqi court last June after they were found guilty of using
poisonous gas against Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s.

However, their executions have been delayed because of a disagreement
between Iraq's Shiite-led government and its Presidency Council about
whether the death penalty should be carried out. In the meantime they
remain in American custody.

(source: New York Times)