1997 murder case retrial involving Nepali requested after new evidence found
TOKYO —
A court hearing was held last week to request a retrial for a Nepali man sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1997 murder of a female TEPCO employee. The request came after it was revealed by the prosecution on Aug 4 that saliva found on the victim’s breasts belonged to a person of blood type O, which was different to that of Govinda Prassad Mainali, 44, who was convicted of her murder.
On Aug 2, the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office revealed to the defense that it would be seeking fresh DNA tests following the discovery. It also announced its plan to disclose 40 pieces of previously unreleased evidence. A decision about the retrial is expected after Tokyo High Court has received a written report on the new DNA tests from a forensics expert.
Govinda at the time had overstayed his visa and was working illegally at an Indian restaurant near the Shibuya apartment where the woman’s body was found. According to the tabloid media, the woman led a double life – TEPCO economist by day, prostitute by night. Govinda was one of her customers.
He pleaded not guilty to murder and was found not guilty by a Tokyo District Court judge. Prosecutors promptly appealed, and the Tokyo High Court in December 2000 secured the guilty verdict they sought. The Supreme Court upheld the verdict in October 2003.
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0
Oracle
Bout friggen time!
0
oginome
He's innocent and should be released, but still a sleazy lowlife unfortunately.
6
borscht
This is why the death penalty should not be used. The Prosecutors hid evidence from the defense and the judge so the defendant did NOT get a fair trial. This is extremely unethical... Wait, I'm talking about the Japanese justice system. Never mind.
-1
oginome
I'd like to know more about the TEPCO economist, whose name we all know, but JT won't publish.
2
smithinjapan
It sounds like they did an EXTREMELY poor job with the evidence in the first place in 1997. If the saliva was of a different type than the man's, and that could have been determined 13 years ago, he should have been let go immediately. What was their proof for finding him guilty? That he was a John of hers? So were a bunch of other people, no doubt. And more than 40 pieces of evidence that were not admitted??
This guy will be found innocent and let go and it will be kept very low-brow in the media while he's deported for all his troubles.
-1
zichi
Sounds like they got the wrong man, again? No death penalty for a single murder. The victim worked for TEPCO in the day, sex worker in the night. If they paid women equal salaries may be they wouldn't need to work has a sex worker. Sounds more like she was killed by one of her clients. On another note, I wonder how many TEPCO have murdered with their nuke disaster?
He can only be deported once he pays the air fare up front, otherwise he'll sit in a detention center. I think he is married to a Japanese woman?
0
oginome
She was earning 10 million yen a year I believe. She was severely depressed, and when mental illness takes over, your life can go down a terrible, completely unexpected path. As soon as you become ill or depressed, the scum of society began to emerge from the gutters, looking to take advantage.
0
Yubaru
If she was earning that much cash she very well was probably smart enough to know what her own problems were. There are those that like the thrill associated with casual encounters and making extra cash on the side could have been more incentive as well. However it's impossible to know either way with the victims being dead now for over a decade.
But I disagree with the point you make here "as soon as you become it or depressed", because usually depressed or ill people, mentally ill that is, more commonly become introverted and not extroverts, like becoming a hooker.
-1
oginome
Just because you're smart does not mean you're immune from mental illness and the debilitating and disturbing effects it can have on the mind and behaviour. She became a streetwalker by the end and set herself a quota of four men every night. Police found 28 condoms in her purse when her body when she was found, four for each day of the week.
It can be both. Either way, there are predators and low lifes out there who'll try and exploit you and take advantage of your weakened state for all it's worth. For people who become introverted, there are are people waiting online to ensare, manipulate and entrap them.
-1
Yubaru
True, however one can not assume that she was either. Also from experience I know that there are plenty of women here in Japan that become either hookers or AV actresses or work in the sex industry BECAUSE they like the thrill, the sex, the money, and the freedom to release themselves in ways that they otherwise couldn't have in their usually structured lives. That doesnt make her or them mentally ill either. Guys do it all the time too and yet don't get called out as being mentally ill. Ever hear of a guy named Tiger Woods?
Yes it can, but one has to assume that is the situation she was in or there had to be evidence to support this before I can accept it was fact regarding this case and this woman. There are predators in all walks of society and their victims are not always mentally ill people either.
Here in Japan it's the heiwa boke attitude that gets people into trouble, because they lack the street smarts for the most part to watch out for the predator.
In this case, I give the prosecutors credit for coming forward and admitting that there could be someone else involved as well. I don't think it lets the current guy off the hook totally yet, it just means that there is someone else involved as well. Give the guy a new trial and let's see what happens.
0
CrazyJoe
Japan should have deported this stupid bastard immediately after the Tokyo District Court found him not guilty. Why should a person be tried twice for the same crime? I prefer the US system where the first verdict is final if you're found not guilty.
1
zichi
If she earning 10 million she was no office worker. Must have been something like a nuclear engineer and knowing all truth and lies behind TEPCO's operations, no wonder she ended up with mental illness?
1
zichi
The victims name was 39-year-old Yasuko Watanabe, vice chief of planning division at TEPCO. In her notebook, her customers included her boss at TEPCO. Govinda Prasad Mainali, who was also on her customer list who was running a Nepalese restaurant. Her father was an engineer at TEPCO. She wrote reports about the dangerous possibility of new clear energy. She was a promising economist.
0
minello7
this is the scary part" It also announced its plan to disclose 40 pieces of previously unreleased evidence."why would that have proved the mans innocence in 1997. Looks like they just needed a conviction at any cost. For those conspiracy theorists" She wrote reports about the dangerous possibility of new clear energy. She was a promising economist." how would that have affected the business of TEPCO. Only a thought!!!!
0
zichi
@minello7
no conspiracy. I just added some details about the victim which were available but lacking from this post. But she had 88 customers and kept details about all of them. How many did the police question and test for DNA?
-2
keika1628
Huh ?
Why is Govinda a sleazy lowlife ?
-1
Oracle
CrazyJoeSep. 05, 2011 - 05:08PM JST
He is not guilty so deport him?? Not following. Not following at all.
2
CrazyJoe
@Oracle
He was an illegal as the article states. (Overstaying of visa and working illegally)
1
Nessie
Normally I would say the victim should not be outed in the news, but in this case she was engaged in illegal activity herself, so she forfeits expectation of privacy.
0
oginome
Here's an excerpt from an article about her
Her downfall seemed to have been triggered by jealousy over a female rival's selection to attend a program at Harvard University, author Sano said.
I'm not disputing the rest of what you're saying about Japanese women and the potential reasons why they sell their bodies. But we're talking specifically about Yasuko here. Falling into prostitution because of jealousy signifies a person who isn't mentally healthy.
This doesn't contradict anything I said. Predators can target anyone, but the mentally ill are particularly vulnerable.
He engaged repeatedly in the service of a prostitute, one who was clearly very disturbed and desperate. Here's another excerpt:
Watanabe also dipped into the lowest form of prostitution. Even in driving rain and freezing cold, she methodically drove herself to fulfill her self-imposed quota of four customers a night. She would stand on the street and solicit anyone for as little as $20--even foreign workers, who are viewed as second-class citizens in homogenous Japan. "Let's have some fun," she would say.
That is how she came to know Mainali.
0
Yubaru
I'm not disputing the rest of what you're saying about Japanese women and the potential reasons why they sell their bodies. But we're talking specifically about Yasuko here. Falling into prostitution because of jealousy signifies a person who isn't mentally healthy.
If this is the justification you use for assuming that she was mentally ill then I guess at least half the planet is mentally ill by your definition. People all over the place do destructive things to their bodies and minds out of jealously, whether it be drinking, smoking, drugs, whatever.
Hers was compulsive behavior I would say, although and unless I am reading you wrong, you attribute her behavior to mental illness, while I would say it was initially purely a compulsive reaction to a given set of circumstances that she fed off of and enjoyed for the reasons I gave earlier.
-2
miyazawa3
He Carries Nepali name but He is American ....So the problem.
-1
CrazyJoe
Govinda is a citizen of Nepal. He is not an American.
0
Darren Brannan
Yeah but now the prosecutors are demanding a new dna test and will show 'unreleased evidence' Sounds very dodgy. His saliva and sperm were a mismatch.
0
oginome
People start smoking and drinking out of jealousy? Never met anyone who gave me that reason. Not saying it doesn't exist, but half the planet is stretching it a bit. Selling your body for sex because a female rival got promoted over you is not mentally healthy.
Compulsive behaviour that drives you to take four men every night as customers no matter who they are, where they're from, or how much money they have is complete mental illness, no matter if she 'enjoyed' it or not.
1
as_the_crow_flies
Why are these so-called prosecutors not in the dock? How can they have the monopoly over evidence that would indicate someone is not guilty of a crime, and not be guilty of perverting the course of justice? This is so beyond me! Personally, the character and habits of the murdered woman, and of the accused man are neither here nor there. Would I want to be close buddies with either of them? No, but the accused deserves a fair trial, and the dead victim, and those close to her, as well as "the public" deserve a trial that brings out the truth, not distorts and hides it. That's justice.
0
Yubaru
I take it you have never experienced doing something that gave you a rush the first time, and then you continued doing it because you liked the experience and wanted to feel it more and more.
Many people have compulsive behaviors, yet from reading what you have written that makes all of them mentally ill in some manner or another right?
Everyone has to assume that is why she started, however, while that may have been the catalyst to move her in that direction there had to be other reasons as well and I would bet it wasn't a spur of the moment decision either. I would bet it was something she considered previously and also taking into consideration the type of work environment she was probably in, it was a way for her to act out her fantasies and get a sexual release as well.
It is not safe to presume that people who sell their bodies for sex, for what ever reason, are mentally ill. I can tell you from experience that isnt true.
0
Oracle
CrazyJoeSep. 06, 2011 - 12:17AM JST
Ah, silly me. However, if he is innocent, do you not think giving him a visa would be a good and essentialy free payback for his time in prison? Or should he just be treated like any other over-stayer?
I have a feeling he will get some cash, but it will amount to peanuts. I think they should give him a life instead.
-1
Yubaru
@oginome,
Question for you here, would say say that a person who runs a full marathon a day for one entire year is mentally ill, because they have compulsive behavior to run all the time? (Just an example)
This woman was intelligent enough to get a job with a leading, at the time, industry, here in Japan. Like any other job here, run for the most part by a bunch of men. She was a career woman making $100,000.00 per year. She probably was under a huge amount of stress to perform, and perform better than her male counterparts to live up to the expectations of the people that put her in that position. She probably stepped on toes to get where she was and liked the ability to control people.
I will bet that she was also a very goal orientated woman, and with regards to her sexual activities, enjoyed the power and control she could wield over men, that she did not have in her day job. She very well may have used her prostituting as a vent, a way to live out her own fantasies. One never knows.
1
MIRAN
Sorry for the Poor Nepali. Why would one not proven Guilty be jailed for more than 14 years. Even if guilty would the Japanese dare Jail Americans???
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