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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Japan: Death penalty in 2011 stalking case upheld

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The Fukuoka High Court upheld the death sentence Tuesday for a 29-year-old man over the killing of the mother and grandmother of a former girlfriend in a high-profile 2011 stalking case.

Presiding judge Hiroshi Furuta said he could find nothing unreasonable with the district court ruling.

In a lay judge trial in June 2013, Nagasaki District Court sentenced Gota Tsutsui to death on charges of murder and intimidation after he was found the morning after the murder with the knife used in the crime and traces of the victims' blood on his clothes.

Tsutsui has maintained his innocence. The high court judge rejected the defendant's claim that the police planted the weapon on him, calling the claim groundless and absurd. Tsutsui's defense counsel plans to appeal the high court ruling.

Furuta described the double murder as "a ruthless crime based on strong criminal intent."

Tsutsui admitted his guilt during the police investigation but then pleaded not guilty during the trial.

Source: The Japan News, June 24, 2014
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