Posted on 12/26/2006 1:14:31 AM PST by bruinbirdman
Four prisoners, including two men in their seventies, were hanged on Christmas Day as the Japanese Government ended a 15-month moratorium on the death penalty. The hangings were the first since September 2005, when a convicted murderer was executed. The death penalty is supported widely in Japan and analysts said that the Government wanted to carry out executions in 2006, which would have been the first year without hangings since 1992.
The timing of the executions has been condemned by Christians, who makes up 1 per cent of the largely Shinto and Buddhist country. “It was such an insensitive act,” Makoto Suzuki, a Christian active in the anti-death penalty movement, said. “Christmas is the day to reaffirm humanity.”
According to reports, the four were Yoshimitsu Akiyama, 77, and Yoshio Fujinami, 75, both convicted murderers; Hiroaki Hidaka, 44, a taxi driver from Hiroshima convicted of murdering four; and Michio Fukuoka, 64, who killed three people. (AFP)
So is murder Makoto. But look on the bright side. Jesus' birthday party is probably still in full swing.
So they got that going for them.
L
So much for the idea that the US is the only developed country to still carry out executions. Note too that two of them were over 75 years old.
I wonder if the executioner received holiday pay?
Once convicted, there is no execution date. The condemned can be snuffed any day, unanounced. No one knows until after the fact, not even family. The warden might walk past the condemned's cell every day. Then one day, maybe years after conviction, maybe a month, the dude goes to the gallows to suffer a strangulation hanging.
yitbos
They've most likely been on death row for a long , long time ...
Strangulation hanging? I wonder how liberals would compare that to good old snapped-neck hanging, on the "humane" scale?
“It was such an insensitive act,”
They shouldn't hang people like that on Christmas. Don't those savages have electric chairs?
Convicted Murderers
Nuff said
Move on, Next Thread ?
>Boy, they have some old murderers in Japan.
Bet they wished they'd eaten lots of red meat and died 20 years ago.
Japan Capital Punishment:
The date of execution is kept secret, even to the family of the convicted and the family of the victim. Usually, the executioner will make preparations during weekdays and the execution is performed on Thursday or Friday.
Death row
Inmates are held at one of seven secure Detention Centres; because they are awaiting execution, those on death row are not classified as prisoners by the Japanese justice system and the facilities they are held at are not referred to as prisons. Inmates lack many of the rights afforded to other Japanese prisoners. The nature of the regime they live under is largely up to the director of the Detention Centre, but it is usually significantly harsher than normal Japanese prisons. Inmates are held under solitary confinement and are forbidden communication with their fellows. They are permitted two periods of exercise a week – reportedly, inmates are not permitted to do even limited exercise within their own cell [6]. They are not allowed televisions and may only possess three books. Prison visits, both by family members and legal representatives, are infrequent and closely supervised.
Execution
Executions are carried out by hanging in a death chamber within the Detention Centre. When a death order has been issued, the condemned prisoner is informed in the morning of his or her execution. The condemned is given their choice of the last meal. The prisoner's family and legal representatives, as well as the victim's family, are never informed until afterwards. Consequently, there is no possibility of a final meeting.
Before the condemned prisoner is blindfolded, he or she is allowed to leave the last message if he or she so wishes, then led to the death chamber. The noose is put in place and the prisoner's knees tied together. The trap-door of the gallows is operated remotely from a separate room: three to five selected prison officers each press a switch, only one of which is wired to the trap-door release. Afterwards, the prisoner's family is informed the execution has occurred and they may collect the body. A brief notice of the execution is issued to the media but the identity of the prisoner is withheld – it will only become publicly known if the family chooses to inform the media.
Then you shold wire it in series, not in parallel.
Loved it!
LOL!
Exactly how sensitive are you supposed to be?
If the US had to be sensitive to populations a small as 1 percent we wouldn’t get much done.
Which does not change the fact Japanese Christians and others believe the executions were insensitively scheduled for and carried out on a major religious holiday celebrated throughout the world. Nor does it change the probable fact the Japanese would not hesitate to do the same thing again.
It's way in Russia and they don't repeat their offense.
Murderers.
It would be insensitive not to execute them.
I fully support these actions by the Japanese legal system.
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