No goodies for Miura, says Saipan jailer

Japanese businessman Kazuyoshi Miura, 60, currently jailed in Saipan, awaiting possible extradition to Los Angeles, received a small disappointment this week when attorney William Fitzgerald, a member of his defense team, was prohibited from presenting Miura with a box of Japanese sembei (rice crackers).

Miura was detained at Saipan airport on Feb 22. Los Angeles authorities allege Miura conspired to murder his wife Kazumi in November 1981 by feigning an armed robbery, during which she was shot in the head. She died without regaining consciousness in November 1982.

Nikkan Sports (March 18) reports that Fitzgerald, who had just returned to Saipan from Tokyo, disembarked from his convertible and approached the jail. The throng of Japanese reporters maintaining vigil outside noticed he was carrying a shopping bag, and asked him what was inside. He jovially informed them that before departing Narita airport, he had purchased “sembei and a Japanese newspaper” to give to his client. But when Fitzgerald departed the facility about 50 minutes later, he was still carrying the bag, and told the reporters with a shrug of resignation he had not been permitted to pass the item to Miura. Aside from three daily meals, the detainees are apparently prohibited from receiving items of food. The newspaper remarked that Fitzgerald, a long-term Saipan resident well known by the local Japanese business community, appeared disappointed he was unable to pass the souvenir to his celebrity client. Japanese authorities had previously refused requests by Los Angeles to extradite Miura because he was on trial in Japan for the attempted murder charge. He was arrested in September 1985, a year and a half after an expose series, titled “Bullets of Suspicion,” began running from January 1984 in the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun. That article alleged that Miura murdered his wife after taking out 160 million yen in insurance on her life.

Miura was found not guilty of the 1981 shooting, but based on the confession and testimony of actress Michiko Yazawa, he was subsequently found guilty of an earlier murder attempt. After losing his appeal in 1998, he served six more years in prison, obtaining release in January 2001.

California has no statute of limitations on homicide. Miura’s legal team, which now includes Fitzgerald, University of Iwate associate professor of law William Cleary and California-based celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, filed a 100-page brief with the court in California, arguing that Miura’s arrest constitutes double jeopardy, which contravenes the spirit of the law.