Four death row inmates hanged

Thursday 10th April, 01:54 PM JST

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Patrick Smash at 11:12 PM JST - 10th April

They find out on the day. They get a knock on the door, which they may have waited 20 yaers for, and they are told they will be executed. They are taken to a waiting room where they are given 30 minutes to write 2 letters to their loved ones if they wish. They are then taken to the gallows. They get a long drop, not a measured drop, so many suffocate on the rope, but others die instantly. 5 different prison officers press a release button each (at the same time) so they do not know which one actually caused the drop.

I think this is disgusting, and I think people who understand how the justice system works generally agree. Japan is one of very, very few countries that use the death sentence, alongside Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and a few notorious others. It is time they scrapped this, and moved towards life imprisonment without parole, with hard labour, for those convicted of the most serious crimes.
electric2004 at 11:31 PM JST - 10th April

The point seems to be, once you have killed more than one person, there is a higher chance to get the death penalty. In this case the murderer did cause so much harm that his remaining single life seems to have less value the the lives he has taken.
ChrisInJP at 01:00 AM JST - 11th April

well, Ill be. I thought they executed hundreds a year. Hope theyre on the right track.
RomeoRamenII at 01:50 AM JST - 11th April

"The US also has the death penalty"

Memo to the America obsessed: not all states have the death penalty.

RR
SuperLib at 01:53 AM JST - 11th April

The death penalty should be abolished. It's just common sense.
newsboy at 02:33 AM JST - 11th April

I give Hatoyama credit, he made the announcement himself rather than depending on some spokesperson....
VOR at 07:06 AM JST - 11th April

I'm all for getting rid of the death penalty as well...right after all the rottenness and evilness in mankind is eliminated.

Japan's penal system does a pretty good in convincing people to obey the law. Their death penalty is carried out in a fashion I would imagine strikes fear into the condemned all the way up to the minute they start defecating all over themselves as they swing from the end of the rope.

Good riddance to these 5 scumbags. Keep up the good work Hatoyama.
Patrick Smash at 08:22 AM JST - 11th April

VOR

I would agree in part, but you obviously know very little about Japan's criminal justice system to say that. The conviction rates in Japanese courts are at 99.97%. People are sent to the gallows on evidence extracted by the police having signed "confessions", which are forced out of people after 23 days of incarceration. Mild torture is permitted during interrogations which are not recorded, and this "evidence" alone is enough to convict and hang someone, through a non-jury trial.

Mr. Hatoyama knows all this, even if you don't. One of the reasons that some people have been on death row so long is that they are believed to be innocent by his predecessors. He's content to have them killed though, which makes him little more than a murderer in my books.
VOR at 10:24 AM JST - 11th April

PATRICK SMASH

Unless you have familiarized yourself with the details of each death penalty conviction, you are basing your opinion on useless generalities.

I am familiar enough with the Japanese judicial system to be reasonably convinced that they take prudent measures to obtain a conviction. Even more so for capital murder convictions.

The way you paint it makes it sound like the Japanese Police will pull in anybody they like without any shred of evidence, force a confession, then hang them without any legal protections.

C'mon, no one other than touchy feely liberals believe that.
Patrick Smash at 10:35 AM JST - 11th April

VOR

Exactly correct. Where else do you think they get that conviction rate from? Why else keep the system so secretive? Explain why former justice ministers leave some people on Death Row for 40 years, and the openly say they believe in that person's innocense. If you don't know who and what I refer to, google it.

You can have blind faith in this system if you want, but people like Hatoyama know better that you do. A man accused of groping can spend 18 months in prison here because he refuses to sign a piece of paper saying he's guilty and won't crack. You know that as well as I do.

How can you get proper information on convictions that are forced over a 23-day period and never recorded? That confession gets you hauled you in front of 3 judges who decide your sentence. It's not a trial.

You base your opinion on a justice system that you know operates in this way, and that's your right. You also use the term liberal to mean anyone concerned about human rights abuse, and that's a give away. No state should be able to make this decision anyway, but with the kind of justice system these people had to face, stringing them up is even more repulsive.
fireant at 12:19 PM JST - 11th April

Japan's penal system does a pretty good in convincing people to obey the law.

If the penal system were to disappear, the people would riot and run amok? Scary place then. Better execute every lawbreaker then. Then the place would be, on this logic, safe enough to let alcoholic, selfish parents raise crying babies without anyone worrying if the baby will someday be killed 'because it was crying.' (As has happened.)
vukodlok at 02:33 PM JST - 13th April

Would it be better to treat murderers with kid gloves and pamper them the way they do in the U.S.? In places like Los Angeles people are murdered on the street for nothing, the criminals have no fear because there is no punishment.
frontandcentre at 06:22 PM JST - 15th April

the criminals have no fear because there is no punishment.

Life imprisonment is 'no punishment'? You MUST be tough...
Everton2 at 10:09 PM JST - 15th April

The death penalty is fine until you find yourself in a situation where you are being railroaded. It just amazes me when I read all these fixed positions born of 14th century logic. It never occurs to them that with an imperfect system some death row inmates may well be innocent. I don't know what supporters of the death penalty is trying to prove as it is well known that it has no discernible effect on curving crime.
Smythe at 07:49 AM JST - 17th April

The sad thing is that Canada banned this or any form of penality death to even a lashing every so many months. Unfortunatedly the USA is slowly doing the same. There is no fear of being cought if you kill someone or commite a crime beyond belief so killers simply carry on & know if(??) cought along if(??) the lawyer cannot spring them free (often an error in the matter of the arrest or the police) then the light sentence will be scratched in 1/3 of the given time.