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Thursday March 22, 5:06 PMDeath sentence upheld, no. of death row inmates reaches 101(Kyodo) _ The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a high court decision to hang a 57-year-old man for the murder of a bar owner in Nagoya in 2002 after serving a prison term for another murder.Once the ruling is finalized, the defendant, Keiki Muto, who now goes by the surname Kano, will be the 101st death-row inmate in Japan. "The act was a cruel and cold-blooded one based on his firm intent to kill, and the bereaved family of the victim feel bitter about their suffering," Chiharu Saiguchi, presiding justice of the top court's No. 1 petty bench, said in the ruling. "The death penalty is unavoidable given the defendant's criminal history of having killed another woman in the same manner," he added. Muto was convicted of strangling Harue Chiba, 61, at her bar in Nagoya on March 14, 2002, after entering the bar as a guest. He later stole about 8,000 yen in cash. Muto had earlier been sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1983 for strangling the female owner of an inn where he had been staying before stealing cash there. He was released from prison in 1998. In May 2003, the Nagoya District Court sentenced Muto to a life term for murdering the Nagoya woman, saying the act had not been premeditated and he had shown remorse. Prosecutors, who demanded the death penalty, appealed the ruling. The Nagoya High Court nullified the decision and sentenced him to death in February 2004 on the grounds that he was unlikely to be rehabilitated. |
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