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Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa has canceled plans to set up a discussion panel on capital punishment despite the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's willingness to openly debate the issue, government sources said Saturday.
The panel would have invited input from experts on all sides of the emotive issue, and Ogawa's decision to curtail the opportunity for debate, including on the suspension of executions, immediately drew fire from death penalty critics.
"It is left up to the personal creed of a justice minister whether to debate capital punishment. The DPJ cannot avoid blame for its irresponsibility as a ruling party," said Hideki Wakabayashi, an official at Amnesty International Japan.
Ogawa has already terminated the ministry's own study panel on the death penalty, and on Thursday approved the hangings of three death row inmates.
The executions were the first since former Justice Minister Keiko Chiba sent two prisoners to the gallows in July 2010.
According to the sources, Ogawa's predecessor, Hideo Hiraoka, was hoping that the envisioned panel of experts would supplement the ministry's study panel, and asked Ogawa to consider the plan when he handed over his ministerial duties in January.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, meanwhile, told a news conference Friday he has no plans to do away with capital punishment.
"Taking into consideration a situation where the number of heinous crimes has not decreased, I find it difficult to do away with the death penalty immediately," he said. "I have no plans to abolish it."
He also pointed out that 85.6 % of citizens polled by the Cabinet Office in December 2009 said capital punishment is unavoidable in some cases.
"We must carefully weigh the nature of the death penalty from various standpoints, while paying sufficient attention to public opinion," Noda said.
Source: Japan Times, April 1, 2012
Executions made after careful preparation: Ogawa made advance plans before the capital punishment of 3 men was enforced
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| Execution chamber at Tokyo Detention Center |
The Democratic Party of Japan, which looked unwilling to enforce capital punishment, made careful preparations before Thursday's executions.
3 death-row convicts were executed on Thursday, ending a 20-month hiatus in carrying out capital punishment.
"Death sentences were handed down after the court, including lay judges, made the anguished decisions," said a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker at a session of the House of Representatives' Committee on Judicial Affairs on March 16. "But the decisions become meaningless unless the sentences are carried out."
Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa replied, "I firmly understand that enforcing [the death penalty] is my duty."
On Wednesday at the House of Councillors' Committee on Judicial Affairs, the justice minister was asked whether he would sign execution mandates.
"My belief has remained the same," Ogawa replied.
In fact, the justice minister had already signed the mandates in preparation for the executions.
Ogawa was appointed to the ministerial post in a Cabinet reshuffle in January, replacing Hideo Hiraoka, who never faced a censure motion or any serious problem.
"The Noda administration was unhappy that no death penalties had been enforced," said a source in the DPJ. "Therefore, a person who is positive towards executions was sent to the post of justice minister."
Before Thursday, Keiko Chiba was the only justice minister to have ordered executions since the DPJ took office by defeating the Liberal Democratic Party in national elections in 2009. As justice minister she oversaw the executions of 2 people on the same day.
4 people including Hiraoka had the post after Chiba, but no more executions took place until Thursday.
Last year was the 1st in 19 years when no executions took place. An association of crime victims and bereaved families suggested they should campaign for censure motions against justice ministers who will not order executions.
When Ogawa took his post in the midst of this situation, there were more than 130 convicts on death-row.
Justice Ministry officials were concerned about this matter and repeatedly explained to Ogawa that an execution was necessary.
Chiba, who supports abolition of capital punishment, set up an internal study panel in the ministry over whether the death penalty should be continued.
The study panel's existence had been used as a reason to avoid executions. Soon after taking office, Ogawa suggested ending the discussion on this matter and on March 6 he abolished the panel.
As for Ogawa's enforcement of capital punishment just 3 months after taking his post, one ministry official said, "It was quicker than I expected."
But another senior ministry official suggested careful preparations had been made. He said, "We had enough time for the minister to carefully study the issue."
During a press conference after the executions, Ogawa said that one of the reasons for his decision was that 13 death sentences have been handed down at trials under the lay judge system.
In the past, executions were favored because they were thought to deter people from committing atrocious crimes, help the feelings of the bereaved families of victims, and had the support of the general public.
Groups demanding the abolition of the death penalty argued that it does not deter people from committing crimes and that using the punishment as a method to make bereaved families feel better makes capital punishment a form of revenge.
These groups also argued that surveys of the public were a reflection of people's emotions.
But under the lay judge system, ordinary citizens working on the cases must make the anguished decision about whether to hand down the death penalty.
There was a dispute in a lay judge trial at the Osaka District Court for a murder-arson case that finished in October last year about whether death by hanging is a form of punishment that is too cruel.
The lay judges concluded that the accused had committed a serious crime that deserved hanging, and therefore would have to accept a certain amount of pain.
Analysts said Ogawa emphasized these judgments as evidence that there is strong public support for the death penalty, and to try to suppress opposition to the death penalty system.
At the press conference, Ogawa said, "The right to decide how crimes should be punished rests with the people."
A member of a group of lawmakers pushing for the death penalty's abolition criticized the comments and said, "He passed the serious judgement about executions on to the public."
But many officials in the ministry and the prosecution authorities support Ogawa.
One of them said: "He just meant that he had consent from the public to exercise the right to punish. He took the view that he could not evade the ordering of executions as long as lay judges continue to hand down death penalties."
Source: Daily Yomiuri Shimbun, April 1, 2012