Japanese Supreme Court rejects calls for death penalty for murderer

Execution chamber
at Tokyo Detention Center

 AICHI — The Supreme Court has rejected a request to sentence to death a man convicted of the murder of a woman in 2007.

Yoshimoto Hori, with accomplices Tsukasa Kanda and Yuichiro Hondo, was found guilty of the murder of 31-year-old Rie Isogai on Aug 24, 2007, in Aichi Prefecture. The men were convicted of abducting Isogai with the intention of robbing and murdering her to prevent her from testifying.

Isogai’s mother drew up a petition for the death penalty that was signed by 100,000 citizens within 10 days, NTV reported. She presented the petition with some 150,000 names to the District Public Prosecutor’s Office of Nagoya 2007. The number had increased to 318,000 by December 2008.

In 2008, Kanda and Hori were sentenced to death. Kawagishi received a life prison term in return for having turned himself in and providing evidence that aided the police investigation. In 2011, Hori’s death sentence was commuted to life in prison, following an appeal, NTV reported.

The Supreme Court rejected a request by the prosecution to have the death sentence reinstated, instead ordering Hori to serve a life sentence.

Source: Japan Today, July 15, 2012