July 10
ISRAEL:
'Japan also executes terrorists'----Yisrael Beytenu MK pushes bill mandating
death sentence for terrorists, points out human rights organizations'
hypocrisy.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Robert Ilatov demanded that the Knesset advance the bill
mandating the death penalty for terrorists.
The bill was frozen after passing its 1st Knesset reading in January.
"Contrary to the claims of those who oppose the death penalty for terrorists,
we see that in the most enlightened countries, such as the US and Japan, the
death penalty is an effective weapon against terror," Ilatov said.
"There's no question that Japan is a progressive country, one of the most
developed in the world. Just this weekend, Japan executed the terrorists who
carried out a sarin attack on Tokyo's subway.
"Obviously, the hypocritical human rights organizations did not say a word."
Ilatov also said he had spoken to the head of Israel's National Security
Council (NSC), demanding a discussion on the law.
"We hope the NSC will keep its promise and that the discussion in another
month, so that the legislation process can advance," Ilatov said.
(source: israelnationalnews.com)
INDIA:
Madras HC upholds death penalty for Chennai techie who raped and murdered
7-year-old
Dhasvanth was accused of raping and murdering his 7-year-old neighbour as well
as murdering his mother while on bail.
The Madras High Court on Tuesday upheld the death penalty verdict given by the
Chengalpet court for Chennai techie (Dhasvanth) in the rape and murder case of
a 7-year-old child.
Judges S Vimala and S Ramathilagam dismissed Dhasvanth's appeal against the
death penalty. He had filed an appeal as he wasn't satisfied with the
investigation of the case.
Dhasvanth has been held guilty under the POCSO Act and Sections 363, 366,
354-b, 302 and 201 of the IPC.
In February 2017, a 7-year-old girl went missing from her housing complex in
the Mugalivakkam area of Chennai. It later came to light that her neighbour,
Dhasvanth, a techie had lured her, sexually assaulted and killed her. He is
also accused of killing his mother when he was out on bail and fleeing with her
jewellery.
(source: indiatoday.in)
*********************
Death penalty won't eradicate crimes against women: Amnesty on SC order in
Delhi gangrape case----The International human rights body claimed there was no
evidence that showed that the death penalty deterred the incidence of sexual
violence and murder.
Executions do not eradicate violence against women, Amnesty International India
said on Monday after the apex court dismissed pleas of 3 of the 4 convicts
seeking a review of the death penalty awarded to them, in the December 16, 2012
gangrape and murder case of a paramedic.
Noting that there was no evidence to show death penalty acted as a deterrent
for sexual violence, the human rights body said the government must allocate
adequate resources for the effective implementation of laws, improve conviction
rates and ensure certainty of justice in all cases.
"Unfortunately executions do not eradicate violence against women. There is no
evidence to show that death penalty acts as a deterrent for sexual violence or
any other crime. Instead, the government must allocate adequate resources for
the effective implementation of laws, improve conviction rates and ensure
certainty of justice in all cases," Asmita Basu, Amnesty International India's
Programmes director, said.
"Even the Justice Verma Committee, whose recommendations were relied upon to
reform the laws on sexual assault and rape, had opposed imposing death penalty
in cases of rape," she said.
A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R
Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan today rejected the review pleas filed by Mukesh
(29), Pawan Gupta (22) and Vinay Sharma (23), saying no grounds have been made
out by them for review of the verdict.
The court said the death row convicts failed to point out "error apparent on
the face of record" in the judgement.
Amnesty International India said in 2017, India was 1 of only 3 countries in
the world which expanded the scope of death penalty by adopting new laws.
In April 2018, the Centre had approved an ordinance introducing death penalty
for those convicted of raping girls aged 12 years or younger, it said.
"All too often lawmakers in the country hold up capital punishment as a symbol
of their resolve to tackle crime, and choose to ignore more difficult and
effective solutions like improving investigations, prosecutions and support for
victims' families. Far-reaching procedural and institutional reforms are the
need of the hour," Basu added.
The bench also ruled that the 3 convicts were heard elaborately during the
stage of their appeal against the Delhi high court's judgement, and no case had
been made out by them for review of the apex court's verdict upholding the
death penalty.
(source: Hindustan Times)
******************
No ground to erase death penalty in Indian law: Supreme Court----The apex court
dealt with this issue as advocate A P Singh, appearing for convicts of Nirbhaya
case, had argued before it about abolition of death penalty in India.
The Supreme Court today said the abolition of death penalty by the British
Parliament, several Latin American nations and Australian states was no ground
to erase capital punishment from the statutes in India.
The apex court, which dismissed the review pleas filed by 3 of the 4 death row
convicts of the sensational December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder
case, said the courts cannot be held for committing any illegality in awarding
capital punishment in "appropriate cases" till death penalty remains in the
penal code.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan
referred to a constitution bench verdict of the apex court and observed that
after elaborately considering the existence of death penalty in the penal code,
constitutional provisions and international covenant on civil and criminal
rights, it was held that death penalty was "constitutionally valid".
The apex court dealt with this issue as advocate A P Singh, appearing for
convicts Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar Gupta, had argued before it about
abolition of death penalty in India.
"The submission of (A P) Singh that death penalty has been abolished by the
Parliament of UK in the year 1966 and several Latin American countries, and
Australian states have also abolished death penalty, is no ground to efface
death penalty from the statute book of our country," Justice Bhushan, writing
the judgement for the bench, said while rejecting the review pleas filed by
Vinay and Pawan.
Besides these 2 convicts, the apex court also rejected the review plea of
another death-row convict Mukesh.
After the apex court verdict, human rights body Amnesty International India, in
a statement, said that executions do not eradicate violence against women and
government must allocate adequate resources for effective implementation of
laws, improve conviction rates and ensure certainty of justice in all cases.
"Unfortunately executions do not eradicate violence against women.
There is no evidence to show that death penalty acts as a deterrent for sexual
violence or any other crime.
Instead, the government must allocate adequate resources for the effective
implementation of laws, improve conviction rates and ensure certainty of
justice in all cases," Asmita Basu, Amnesty International India's Programmes
director, said.
The 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped on the intervening night of
December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in South Delhi by 6 persons and
severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.
She had succumbed to injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital
in Singapore.
The apex court in its May 5, 2017 verdict had upheld capital punishment awarded
to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case.
***************
Death given, fate awaited: A look of convicts awaiting the noose in India
Here's a look at the number of convicts given death penalty and the convicts
who are presently on death row presented as a statewise figure.
According to data by Project 39A, National Law University, 720 prisoners have
been executed in independent India although thousands of death sentences were
meted out. Currently, there are more than 400 convicts waiting for the warrant
in jail.
[see map for specifics:
http://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2018/jul/10/death-given-fate-awaited-a-look-of-convicts-awaiting-the-noose-in-india-1841164.html]
(source for both: newindianexpress.com)
IRAN----juvenile execution
Execution of Young Man for Crime Committed at Age 14 Shows Iran's Blatant
Disregard for Children's Rights----Iran is one of world's few countries
executing juveniles; dozens currently on death row
The execution of 19-year old Chezani Sharahi by hanging in Iran's Central
Prison in the city of Qom on June 27, 2018, highlights the Iranian Judiciary's
complete disregard for children's rights that are protected under international
law, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said in a statement today. This
execution and the abuses of the judiciary and other state bodies that enable
such violations should be forcefully condemned by the international community,
CHRI said.
The execution of an individual who committed the crime as a juvenile is against
all international norms and standards, and has been repeatedly condemned by the
UN.
"Hanging a young man who committed the crime at age 14 demonstrates Iran's
dismissal of international law and obligations and shows it to be a state that
rejects the protected rights of its own citizens, including its children," said
Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI executive director.
Sharahi was arrested in December 2013 at the age of 14 for allegedly stabbing
his friend. According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) and Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is illegal to
execute someone for crimes committed under the age of 18. Iran is a party to
both treaties but remains one among a handful of countries still putting
juveniles to death.
Sharahi's hanging also demonstrates how other state bodies routinely collude
with the judiciary to advance prosecutions. In this case, Iran's Legal Medicine
Organization declared that Sharahi had achieved full "mental maturity" by the
age of 14, when the crime was committed, thereby enabling the death sentence.
This assessment was accepted by the court even after credible concerns were
raised regarding the legitimacy of the assessment.
Sharahi's execution was the 4th carried out against a juvenile offender in the
country since January 2018. Dozens of others of people who were sentenced as
juveniles remain on death row.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein condemned the
continued implementation of the death penalty against juvenile offenders in
Iran, stressing that the execution of juvenile offenders is strictly prohibited
by international law under all circumstances, regardless of the nature of the
crime alleged to have been committed.
"I am deeply disturbed that Iran continues to implement the death penalty
against juvenile offenders, with some 85 others reportedly on death row," Zeid
said on in a statement on June 28.
"The international community should speak loudly and with one voice to condemn
this blatant violation of children???s rights and the Iranian authorities'
continued practice of executing juvenile offenders," said Ghaemi.
(source: Iran Human Rights)
JAPAN:
Aum Shinrikyo: The Japanese Killer Cult That Wanted to Rule the World----They
made weapons of mass destruction, worked with the yakuza, and killed anyone in
the way. The U.S. was also in their cross-hairs. The leaders are now dead. Not
the cult.
The leader of Japan's apocalyptic neo-Buddhist cult, Shoko Asahara (real name:
Chizuo Matsumoto), aged 63, was hanged by the neck until dead on Thursday for
his role in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo subway and other
brutal acts which resulted in the deaths of at least 29 people. 6 other former
disciples also were executed, according to Japan's ministry of justice.
Asahara's death sentence was finalized in 2006. The Japanese government, as a
general rule, only carries out executions when all appeals and related court
cases have been exhausted. Still, it's unclear why these executions took place
now.
During Asahara's time as the leader of Aum Shinrikyo, he justified murder of
opponents as "cleaning karma" (karma-otoshi) or "poa," he worked with the
yakuza, and planned acts of mass destruction.
In the final verdict upholding his death penalty in 2006, the guru's motives
were summed up succinctly by the court: "Asahara under the pretext of offering
salvation fantasized about ruling Japan as its king. He tried to kill anyone
who got in the way."
But Japan was, in fact, too small for his ambitions. Many people still are not
aware of what a global organization his group had become or the threat it posed
to other countries, including and especially the United States. Aum Shinrikyo
was virulently anti-American, anti-Semitic, and used offices in the U.S. to
prepare for large-scale attacks in Japan and a future attack in New York as
well. Asahara was plotting global domination.
Destroyer of Worlds
Aum Shinrikyo was a new religion founded in February 1984 that espoused a
mixture of science, occultism, Buddhism, eastern religion, and new age
theology. Asahara, the founder, was highly intelligent and charismatic. He was
also legally blind, which added to his oracular aura. He claimed to be a deity,
capable of purifying sinners, and a prophet of the end times.
Asahara recruited the brightest minds he could find and over the years began
turning the cult into a brutally efficient war machine. As it recruited
thousands of members, the group used mind control, psychedelic drugs, secret
rituals, violence, and blackmail to keep them in line. Asahara eventually came
to fancy himself as the incarnation of Shiva, the Indian god of destruction.
By 1988, the cult was engaging in criminal behavior - forcing donations from
members and holding them captive - that caught the attention of law
enforcement. The point of no return came in February 1989 when several of
Asahara's followers strangled to death cult member Shuji Taguchi, who had tried
to leave the organization. Asahara ordered the execution.
Then, on Nov. 4, 1989, disciples of Asahara raided the home of Tsutsumi
Sakamoto, a lawyer handling complaints against the religious group, kidnapping
his wife and his one year old son. One member of the hit-squad was Asahara's
bodyguard, skilled in karate. He severely beat the lawyer before finishing him
off and kicked his wife in the stomach while the other members strangled her.
It was a crude and cruel execution.
"After killing the Sakamoto family, the leaders of Aum Shinrikyo didn't have
qualms about a few more murders."
Why was the lawyer killed? A Japanese news network had filmed an interview with
Sakamoto a few weeks earlier in which the lawyer had discussed his great
concerns about the cult and its fanatical tendencies. The network showed the
tape to Aum Shinrikyo senior members seeking comment. Tipped off to the
problematic interview and increasingly annoyed by Sakamoto's actions, the guru
ordered his assassination.
The Kanagawa Police did a sloppy investigation of the the "disappearance" of
the lawyer, even failing to find an Aum Shinrikyo badge that had fallen at the
scene of the crime. Some speculate that their failure may have been due to a
cult sympathizer within the police force. The television station did not air
the interview after the disappearance of the family, or alert the police to the
fact that it might inadvertently have given the cult a reason to kill them.
After killing the Sakamoto family, the leaders of Aum Shinrikyo didn???t have
qualms about a few more murders. At about the same time they also were reaching
the conclusion that they would need to rule Japan to bring about the apocalypse
and spread the wisdom of Asahara.
"It was estimated that Aum Shinrikyo had assets of close to a billion dollars
by 1995."
In 1990, 24 members of the group ran for office in the Japanese parliamentary
elections, but none were elected. So the cult's top executives decided that
violent revolution would be necessary - by any means possible. They even
created a shadow cabinet among members, so that they could quickly run Japan
when the day came.
Asahara fancied himself a prophet and what better way to be a prophet than
making what you say come true? He predicted the cult would be attacked with
chemical weapons and that armageddon would come by 1995 or 1997 or 1999.
The firm began plans to create weapons of mass destruction. Yoshihiro Inoue,
one of the Aum members executed on Thursday, stated in court testimony in 1997
that Asahara's final goal "was to take over the world by spreading sarin in
Japan and the United States, killing the Emperor, and winning over Russia by
bribery."
The cult needed funds to bring these plans to fruition and had no scruples
about gaining those funds by any means possible. They began manufacturing
methamphetamines and selling them to the Japanese mafia, the yakuza. The group
successfully recruited several yakuza to its cause, assigning one to help
manufacture guns - a rare item in a country with some of the strictest gun
control laws in the world.
Hideo Murai, "The Minister of Science and Technology," watched over the weapons
development and acted as conduit to the yakuza. However, the cult also ran
legitimate businesses: curry shops, personal computer stores, and yoga classes.
It was estimated that Aum Shinrikyo had assets of close to a billion dollars by
1995.
Preparing for the End of Times
According to the 1995 "A Case Study on the Aum Shinrikyo" by the U.S. Senate's
Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations - which was
compiled with the aid of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Japan's National
Police Agency, The Australian Federal Police and others - the cult set up
operations in at least 7 different countries: Russia, Australia, Germany,
Former Yugoslavia, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka. The United States was not only a
training base and weapons development site for members of the cult, they also
were considering a large scale attack on New York City, and they certainly had
the capability.
According to the report, "Aum Shinrikyo came to the United States officially in
late 1987 when it incorporated in New York City under the name Aum USA Company,
Ltd., a not-for-profit corporation. Although the office purported to promote
the cult's book sales and recruitment of followers, the Staff's review of
records and documents, and interviews of the manager of the New York office,
establish that the office was also acting as a purchasing agent for the cult as
it attempted to obtain high technology equipment, computer software and
hardware, and other items from the United States, much of which was intended to
assist the cult's militarization program. Additionally, in the 1990s the cult
used a purchasing agent in California to facilitate acquisition of similar
technology and hardware, and military equipment such as gas masks."
"As early as 1992 Aum was looking at ways to spread sarin via a helicopter."
The group purchased molecular modeling software and other materials in the
United States which were most likely used to develop chemical weapons. They
also tried to buy a high-powered laser system, costing nearly half a million
dollars, presumably to weaponize it.
By 1993, the group was moving ahead with its development of deadly chemical
weapons. It had managed to synthesize VX gas and sarin, a deadly nerve gas
originally developed by Nazi Germany. The Australian Federal Police later found
that in the spring of 1993 the cult had purchased a 500,000 acre sheep farm in
Baniawarn, 375 miles northeast of Perth. They set up a high-tech laboratory on
the farm.
In the same year, Hideo Murai, the supposed minister of science and technology,
and other members, were stopped by Australian customs due to suspicious
behavior. Customs officials searched their bags and found "four liters of
concentrated hydrochloric acid, including some in containers marked as hand
soap.... ammonium chloride, sodium sulphate, perchloric acid, and ammonium
water."
The Australian authorities confiscated all of the chemicals and some of the
laboratory equipment. The police later confirmed that Aum had conducted
experiments on the sheep there. The authorities extracted trace elements of
sarin in the ground where a group of 29 dead sheep had been found.
The lambs to the slaughter preceded the mass murders that were to come.
As early as 1992 Aum was looking at ways to spread sarin via a helicopter to do
maximum damage. In October of 1993, two cult members came to the U.S. to obtain
pilot licenses for private helicopters. They received flight lessons from a
private flight school in Florida. They obtained a private pilot rating for
rotorcraft helicopters on October 31, 1993. Shortly after that, the group
purchased a helicopter in Russia.
The Attacks
In June 1994, Aum did a test run of the sarin gas in a residential area of
Matsumoto City, killing 7 people and seriously injuring others. The 1st man to
report the attack, whose wife died from exposure to the chemical agent, was
suspected of being responsible. His name was leaked to the press by local
police.
However, by January of 1995, Japan's National Police Agency, was almost certain
that Aum had released the nerve gas in Matsumoto City. Still, they took no
decisive action. In fact, a team of police reporters led by Akihiko Misawa, at
the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, on the front page of its Jan. 1, 1995 edition,
boldly announced to the world that traces of sarin had been found in soil
deposits from the group's compound in Yamanashi Prefecture.
And then March 20 came. The original plan was to murder thousands of innocent
people, perhaps in an effort to derail investigations into the cult's
activities. The only reasons Aum failed to do that were impurities in the sarin
and a faulty delivery system. There are conflicting theories on why the attack
was launched, in the end, with such evident haste. Asahara never explained.
The original plan was to place 10 small containers of sarin on 5 trains running
on 3 major lines of the Tokyo subway system (Marunouchi, Chiyoda and Hibiya),
which have millions of riders.
"Initially 12 people died and over 6,000 were sickened or injured. Massive
panic ensued as the gas caused victims to choke, vomit and fall down with
severe coughing."
They aimed for maximum damage by releasing the sarin during rush hour between
8:00 and 8:10 a.m.
The attack was aimed to culminate in Kasumigaseki, a major subway hub station,
that is within walking distance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Ministry of Finance, and both the Tokyo Police and the National Police Agency.
Many of the commuters passing through Kasumigaseki station are public
officials.
The plan did not go as expected. Initially 12 people died and over 6,000 were
sickened or injured. Massive panic ensued as the gas caused victims to choke,
vomit and fall down with severe coughing. First responders were also injured
and at least 1 Metro employee lost his life trying to save commuters.
On March 22, 2 days after the attacks, police launched massive raids on Aum and
its facilities.
On March 30 the National Police Agency Commissioner General Takaji Kunimatsu
was shot and severely wounded in front of his home in Arakawa Ward. Many
believed that Aum was responsible; the case was never solved.
On May 16, Asahara was finally found and arrested. The same month, Aum member,
Toru Toyoda (on death row) and other members set up a machine to disperse a
fatal cloud of cyanide fumes by placing it in an underground passage connected
to megalithic transport hub, Shinjuku Station, but fortunately they failed.
What would have happened if the police hadn't arrested the members for the
attack? More than likely, they would have expanded the scope of their terrorist
campaign to New York and beyond.
The cult's chief of intelligence, when captured by the police, had detailed
notebooks outlining plans to carry out randoms acts of terrorism in major U.S.
cities, including New York. The group also considered mailing packages of sarin
to the U.S., to be collected by members and then used to launch a series of
attacks.
In court testimony, other members of the group discussed further plans to
unleash havoc in the United States. A senior police detective who worked on the
case for 3 years told The Daily Beast on conditions of anonymity, "They had
members who could go in and out of the United States who were trained to fly
helicopters. There was serious consideration of chartering a private helicopter
and spreading poison gas in New York City, near the financial center - where
'all the Jews were.'"
The detective pointed out that dispersal of sarin via a helicopter would
probably be an extremely poor delivery system. The detective explained, "If you
try and think of their plans rationally, it makes no sense, but Ashara believed
himself to be a prophet and the group's actions changed and shifted with his
delusions and visions."
Tying Up Loose Ends
As it became apparent that Aum was responsible for the sarin gas attacks, every
host country began closing down the group's operations. It was an embarrassment
for Russia and Germany. And for certain yakuza groups, the chain of events
resulting in the arrest of Asahara was seriously bad news. Especially for the
Yamaguchi-gumi. It's permissible to be a ruthless bunch of tattooed gangsters
espousing chivalry, but it's entirely unacceptable to be an accomplice to
indiscriminate mass murder.
During the period leading up to the sarin gas attacks, when Aum Shinrikyo was
making methamphetamines to raise money, it used its former Yamaguchi-gumi
members to connect to the Yamaguchi-gumi organization, primarily the militant
Goto-gumi faction (led by Tadamasa Goto). Soon it was wholesaling drugs,
weapons, and powerful mini-incinerators to yakuza or their associates. One
small scale incinerator was used by serial killer Gen Sekine and his wife to
burn the bodies of their victims. The Goto-gumi, through front companies, also
did a series of real estate transactions with the cult. The yakuza profited
from their transactions and also played a role in silencing dissent and
complaints in the areas where Aum set up their facilities.
"The elimination of Murai effectively closed many avenues of the
investigation."
Hideo Murai, who had been in charge of designing the cult's chemical weapons,
also was one of the chief liaisons to the Yamaguchi-gumi and Tadamasa Goto. As
the investigation progressed and the yakuza organization feared its connections
to the group would be made public, it apparently decided that Murai would have
to go. On April 23, 1995, in front of a crowd of reporters outside Aum's Tokyo
headquarters, Jo Hiroyuki, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, stabbed Murai
multiple times. He died a few days later.
At first Hiroyuki, who did not flee the scene, insisted that although he was a
Japanese of South Korean descent, he was also a right-wing Japanese nationalist
and acted on his own. Later, at his trial, he said he was ordered to make the
hit by Kenji Kamimine, a senior leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi Hane-gumi - and
promised a great promotion if he did it. Kamamine was never convicted for his
part, if he played a part, in the murder. Even the Japanese courts handling the
case noted, "There are many details behind the killing of Murai that are
unclear."
The elimination of Murai effectively closed many avenues of the investigation.
It should be noted that Hiroyuki, after being released from prison, went to
work for Goto. While Goto is allegedly a buddhist monk, he is still running a
criminal empire in Cambodia, according to U.S. authorities. Karma doesn't catch
up with everyone.
Many other former members of the cult, possibly 1,600 by some estimates, are
still active in the 2 splinter organizations formed after the group's
dissolution. They are closely monitored by the police.
The Remaining Mysteries
There are many questions still surrounding Aum Shinrikyo: Why didn't the police
stop them when they could? How deeply did they infiltrate the Japanese
government? Why is Aum still allowed to exist today, albeit under different
names? And of course, why did the Ministry of Justice suddenly execute 7
members last Thursday? Why that day?
There aren't good answers to those questions - and the executions mean we may
never really have the answers. Japan does have strong laws protecting religious
freedom and police officers also crack jokes that if Aum is banned completely,
the Public Security cops will have nothing to do and be unable to justify their
budget. There is probably a grain of truth in that.
"There are 6 more members of Aum Shinrikyo on death row."
As to the timing of the executions, Nikkan Gendai, an evening paper, had a
cynical answer to the last question: the hanging of Shoko Asahara comes just as
the Shinzo Abe administration is trying to ram through the parliament an
unpopular bill legalizing casinos, and faces multiple scandals. Perhaps the
Japanese government killed some death row inmates to kill debate about other
subjects.
The night before the execution, Abe and Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa attended
a party in Akasaka, drinking sake with other members of the Liberal Democratic
Party in what some construed as a celebration of the coming executions. A photo
of the grinning PM and justice minister posted on twitter by one of the party
attendees drew heavy criticism from death penalty opponents, and even the
general public. Comments included, "You'd think that killing 7 people wouldn't
be something to smile about" and "I guess it's true that [in Japan] when a
politician executes someone their support ratings rise."
Of course, there are not many voices of sympathy for the 7 executed.
There are 6 more members of Aum Shinrikyo on death row. Their final day of
judgment will only come when the Japanese ruling party considers it politically
expedient to execute them as well. Here in Japan, it's often the case that when
justice is served it's also self-serving.
(source: thedaiybeast.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
