“The only thing cruel and unusual about the death penalty are the stays.” — El Rushbo
78?
Convicted in 1966 and sentenced to death.
Still alive in 2014?
Just release him already.
Reprieve hearing for the dead victims..., still pending...
Wait'...in 48 years this insinuation of planting evidence is just now coming to light...
People don’t realize that the Japanese legal system is very different than ours. When you are arrested in Japan you are assumed guilty and they will put all sorts of pressure on you to admit that guilt. Also, like the US, the prosecutors/Judges would consider it a grave loss of face to lose so the deck is very much stacked against you so most just plead guilty. Actually the more I think about it the more I think that the US and Japanese systems are the same after all.
Japanese laws are very different —after your initial arrest they can hold you with NO CHARGES FILED for up to 24 days, I believe, and they are relentlessly interrogating you that whole time.
The pressure is intense, and there are many cases of innocent people confessing to crimes they were innocent of.
The conviction rate in Japan is over 99%.
Even in Japan an innocent person getting near the needle is rare.
Better late than never, I guess. I wonder if he has any living relatives or friends.
That’s longer than some first degree murder sentences handed down in the U.S.
There are numerous examples in the U.S. where framed individuals were imprisoned for decades when cops and prosecutors knew they were innocent.