[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 22


JAPAN:

Young killers at heart of capital punishment fight


After a juvenile received a life sentence in 2000 for the murder and
attempted rape of Yayoi Motomura, 23, and the murder of her 11-month-old
daughter, Yuka, the killer wrote a letter to a friend that placed him at
the center of Japan's capital punishment debate.

Hiroshi Motomura, whose wife and child were murdered in Yamaguchi
Prefecture by a minor in 1999, speaks to reporters in Tokyo on April 18
after hearing a session on the case at the Supreme Court.

"I've always been able to hurt others, run away and win. I won. Evil gets
the first and last laugh," he wrote in the note, which his friend revealed
to the media.

Describing the murders he committed on April 14, 1999, at the age of 18,
the killer, who cannot be named because the was a minor at the time, said:
"A dog saw a cute dog. (Then) it just did it right there."

His flippant attitude at the time and during his trial outraged Yayoi's
husband, Hiroshi, and prosecutors, who appealed the life sentence,
demanding the death penalty.

But the appellate court upheld the Yamaguchi District Court's sentence,
and the case is now before the Supreme Court. The court took receipt of
the defense statement Thursday in which lawyers claimed the defendant did
not intend to kill, but was only trying to silence their screams and
panicked.

The court is expected to rule on the lower court sentence in the next few
months.

At issue is whether the death penalty should apply in the case of one
young murderer. But people on both sides of the death penalty debate
believe the future of capital punishment in Japan is at stake.

Strong public sentiment

The Supreme Court began hearing defense arguments in March -- an unusual
move for the highest court, which usually makes rulings based only on
papers submitted by the 2 sides.

The decision to invite oral arguments fueled speculation that the Supreme
Court was considering overturning the lower court decision and sending the
case back to the lower court. If that happens, the high court might well
reverse its earlier sentence and opt for capital punishment.

The defendant replaced his first attorney with Yoshihiro Yasuda, a
well-known human rights lawyer and death penalty opponent. He also wrote
to the victim's husband in April.

Hiroshi Motomura said he has no interest in reading it. "He did not write
to me once in the past 7 years to apologize, explain or make sense of what
happened," said Motomura, who suspects the letter is only a defense tactic
aimed at showing contrition. "But it does show he is finally ready to take
this trial seriously."

The possibility that someone could be hanged for a double-murder the
accused committed as a minor has alarmed death penalty foes.

The public is increasingly sympathetic to victims and their families in
such crimes, according to opinion polls by the Cabinet Office, which point
to an 80 percent support rate for capital punishment.

"More victims of crime are speaking out, and the public is taking a harder
line against juvenile criminals," said Kenji Hirose, a former judge and
professor of law at Rikkyo University in Tokyo.

"Sentences for taking a human life have, for the most part, been lighter
in Japan than those overseas," he said, noting among judges, it was a rule
of thumb that a murderer should spend about 10 years in prison for each
life taken.

When the Hiroshima High Court upheld the defendant's life sentence in
2002, the court said there was a possibility the accused could learn to
live a useful life.

The court also mentioned his troubled childhood, during which his mother
committed suicide, as a reason for clemency.

It is still possible the defendant, now 25, may reform, said Koichi
Kikuta, a law professor at Meiji University in Tokyo.

"I suspect the (Supreme) court is being influenced by the growing tendency
among the public to support crime victims," Kikuta said.

"The previous court decisions cited the possibility that the defendant
could be rehabilitated. I think handing down a harsher penalty in response
to public sentiment is unjust."

Motomura, who has been vocal in his criticism of the killer, joined with
other crime victims in an effort to expand their rights at a time when
they were given little access to trials of the accused offenders.

In April 2005, a law to allow the victimized to play a greater role during
trials took effect. And the government now grants them greater access to
information on investigations and trials.

Effective deterrent?

Death sentences can be handed down to people aged 18 and older, but the
Juvenile Law states that life imprisonment should be meted out when
sentencing someone who was under 20 when the crime was committed.

Since the end of the World War II, there have been 8 exceptions made to
this rule, where people who were under 20 at the time of their crimes have
been sentenced to death.

They include the Aug. 1, 1995, hanging of Norio Nagayama, who was
originally sentenced to life for murdering 4 people when he was 19. The
Supreme Court in 1983 overturned that sentence and ruled he should be
executed.

"The Nagayama case became the standard -- if you're a minor and kill four
people, you could face death, but with fewer victims, you could avoid it,"
Motomura said. "That is precisely why the perpetrator assumed he would not
be put to death, but he is wrong."

Those like Motomura who are pushing for harsher juvenile sentences argue
they will deter crime.

"An 18-year-old should be aware of the consequences of killing another
person," said Yoshikazu Otsuka, a lawyer based in Urawa, Saitama
Prefecture.

Capital punishment maintains order in society and, he figured, prevents
lynching of perpetrators by victims' families.

But attorney Yasuda disagrees: "Capital punishment is cruel, brutal and
senseless. Will putting this man to death bring the victims back? No. Will
crime go down if we put this man to death? No."

But beyond the usual arguments, the case spotlights how much weight Japan
gives to both victims and perpetrators.

Motomura visited Napoleon Beazley, a 30-year-old on death row in Texas in
January 2002.

Beazley, a star student, was given a lethal injection four months later on
May 28 for shooting a 63-year-old man in a carjacking at age 17.

Beazley told Motomura that he only realized the full weight of the
suffering he caused the victim's family, when he saw his mother collapse
in tears when his sentence was handed down.

Motomura went away convinced that the death penalty was necessary to make
people realize what they had done.

But Beazley's conclusion differed from Motomura's. His last words were a
passionate plea to give death-row inmates a 2nd chance.

"Give those men a chance to do what's right. Give them a chance to undo
their wrongs. A lot of them want to fix the mess they started, but don't
know how. The problem is not in that people aren't willing to help them
find out, but in the system telling them it won't matter anyway," he said.
"No one wins tonight. No one gets closure. No one walks away victorious."

(source: The Japan Times, May 20)