Japan: Justice minister feels signing off on hangings just part of job description

Death chamber
at Tokyo Detention Center

Toshio Ogawa is the first justice minister to tacitly support capital punishment since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power in September 2009 and has no intention of engaging in the debate over whether to end the death penalty.

He said the study group weighing the possibility of abolishing capital punishment has run out of things to discuss.

"Whether or not the death sentence should be kept had been discussed in depth before the study group was set up (in September 2010 by then Justice Minister Keiko Chiba).

"It has not yielded any new opinions and it is a waste of time to listen to the same opinions," Ogawa told journalists in his Tokyo office Jan. 23.

"We are done discussing and are now in the midst of compiling opinions, and will make an announcement when everything is compiled," he said.

Ogawa, who passed the bar in 1970 and served as a judge, prosecutor and lawyer before becoming a lawmaker, was senior vice justice minister for a year to last September in Naoto Kan's administration.

The study group was never tasked with coming up with proposals. Chiba, who signed the orders for 2 hangings despite her personal beliefs, established the group because she wanted nationwide discussions on capital punishment.

Ogawa reiterated he feels it is his responsibility as justice minister to sign off on executions.

"I don't really want to do it, but that is one of the justice minister's job descriptions. With 130 inmates on death row and public opinion showing 85 % of Japanese support the death sentence, it is inexcusable not to sign off on executions," he said.

No hangings have taken place since Chiba, a DPJ member, gave the go-ahead for the 2 executions in July 2010.

The frequency of executions appears to vary depending on the justice minister at the time. Other than the 2 inmates sent to the gallows in 2010, 7 were hanged in 2009, 15 in 2008, nine in 2007 and 4 in 2006.

Japan is one of 58 countries, including the United States, China, India and Iran, where executions take place. A total of 104 countries, including all European countries, Canada and Australia, either have abolished the death sentence or have not resorted to its use in years, according to Amnesty International.

Ogawa said he has not ruled out signing off on executions while the Diet is in session. Past justice ministers have generally refrained from having anyone executed during legislative sessions, apparently to avoid coming under fire from fellow lawmakers.

Ogawa said he is neutral on calls for establishing an alternative punishment, such as life in prison with no chance of parole. Some argue this sentence is necessary because the gap in harshness between hanging and life with possible parole is too wide.

"I think it is extremely painful if inmates have no possibility of parole. They may give in to despair. On the other hand, it is better than death," he said.

Source: Japan Times, January 31, 2012

Related articles:

Death Penalty News: Japan: New minister won't shirk from hangings

Jan 15, 2012

New Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa indicated he may issue execution orders as the number of death-row inmates has grown to a postwar high of around 130, but suggested that condemned Aum Shinrikyo members may not ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Death Penalty News: Japan: New Justice Minister Says Execution ...

Jan 19, 2012

OGAWA Toshio, who was appointed Minister of Justice on 13 January, has said that he intends to resume executions. Last year Japan did not carry out any executions, for the first time in 19 years. The estimated 130 death row ...

http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Comments

Kansas AG urges governor to deny clemency to 8 sentenced to death

TOPEKA — Attorney General Kris Kobach on Tuesday urged the governor to deny clemency to Kansas inmates who have been sentenced to death. Eight of nine people sentenced to death in Kansas formally filed clemency requests in May, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office. Kobach urged Gov. Laura Kelly to reject them.

Alabama | Judge bars nitrogen gas execution, says method is unconstitutionally cruel

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked Alabama from executing an inmate with nitrogen gas after declaring it violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks issued the ruling hours after an appeals court reversed her initial finding that the method was constitutional. Marks permanently enjoined the state from executing Jeffrey Lee, 49, by nitrogen gas. He was scheduled to be executed Thursday. The decision, for now, blocks the use of the controversial new execution method that the state has championed since 2024, but the issue will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Idaho will soon turn to firing squad executions. Police will pull the triggers

Trained members of Idaho law enforcement with demonstrated firearms proficiency are expected to fill slots for carrying out the death penalty by firing squad as the state prison system transitions to the controversial execution method next month. Six volunteers certified for no less than three years apiece through Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, will be recruited to ensure the Idaho Department of Correction is ready to comply with a state law that prioritizes shooting prisoners to death over lethal injection starting July 1. No one on the team may have faced disciplinary action over firearms, use of force, or related conduct over the prior year, according to new execution protocols the prison system released this week.

SCOTUS: Alabama can’t execute Jeffery Lee by nitrogen; Thursday execution called off

After a week of legal volleyball, Alabama death row inmate Jeffery Lee’s execution—scheduled for Thursday evening—was called off after federal courts called the state’s nitrogen gas execution method “likely unconstitutional.” The state took the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping Lee could still be put to death tonight. In an order issued at 8:10 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that it would not lift a ban on Alabama executing Lee via nitrogen . In a short court order, the justices denied Alabama’s motion to go ahead with the execution. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch would have granted the appeal and let the execution proceed, according to the order.

US | Army lays groundwork for death row executions if Trump gives approval

The Army is preparing to carry out the executions of the military's four death-row inmates if ordered to do so by the president, according to an internal planning document reviewed by ABC News. If carried out, it would mark the first time the military executed convicted American inmates in more than a half-century The plan, dubbed "Operation Resolute Justice" and issued internally in February, directs Army officials to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer condemned prisoners from the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the federal execution facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the Justice Department carried out a series of non-military federal executions during President Donald Trump's first term.

With nitrogen gas blocked, Alabama seeks to execute inmate by lethal injection

Jeffery Lee, who successfully challenged his scheduled Thursday execution by nitrogen gas, argued that execution by firing squad would be less painful. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office Friday sought to put an Alabama death row inmate to death by lethal injection a day after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed the state’s attempt to execute him by nitrogen gas. In a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court Friday afternoon, the state sought an expedited motion to set a new execution date for Jeffery Lee, 49. The state said that with a permanent injunction in place against nitrogen gas, the method by which the state intended to execute Lee on Thursday, it could execute him by lethal injection or the electric chair.

Texas | Tanner Horner now incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit

Convicted child killer Tanner Horner has now taken up residence in one of the most brutal death row prisons after being sentenced to die by a Texas jury last month. Horner is incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit, an infamously restrictive prison outside Houston where the state's death row inmates are housed in an all-solitary confinement wing and spend at least 22 hours a day in their 60-square-foot cells. The former FedEx deliveryman, 34, was booked at the notorious prison on May 5 within hours of being sentenced for the gruesome murder of Athena Strand, 7, whom he admitted strangling while delivering a Christmas gift to her home in November 2022.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Texas | Death Row Inmate Gets Resentenced to Life

Harris County district judge recommends compassionate release for Clarence Jordan A 1977 convenience store robbery that resulted in a clerk’s death landed Clarence Jordan on Texas Death Row, where he remained for decades even though he was declared incompetent for execution. On Monday, a judge recommended that the disabled man be released. Harris County District Court Judge Katherine Thomas resentenced Jordan to life with the possibility of parole and suggested that he be considered for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Medically Recommended Intensive Supervision program, also known as compassionate release.

New Mississippi billboard warns criminals: ‘Firing squad is legal’

DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. (WREG) — A billboard standing on Interstate 55 southbound as you cross the Tennessee state line and enter Mississippi from Memphis is sending a grim message to those coming into the state. DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton recently announced the new billboard campaign, which features the sign reading, “WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. WHERE THE FIRING SQUAD IS LEGAL. THINK TWICE.” It references Mississippi’s law permitting execution by firing squad under certain circumstances for inmates sentenced to death. Barton says this campaign is aimed at deterring violent crime and sends a direct message to criminals entering Mississippi.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog