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Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

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Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

California inmate Brandon Wilson commits suicide on death row

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San Quentin's death row, California
San Quentin's death row, California
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) - Authorities say a California death row inmate who killed a 9-year-old Oceanside boy has hanged himself in his cell.

State corrections officials tell the San Diego Union-Tribune (http://bit.ly/2jggvtH) that Brandon Wilson was found dead Thursday at San Quentin State Prison.

The 33-year-old was convicted of slitting the throat of Matthew Cecchi in an Oceanside Harbor restaurant in 1998.

The Oroville boy was in town for a family reunion.

Wilson, a drifter from Wisconsin, said he'd taken LSD and believed God had told him to kill people.

He was captured two days later after stabbing a woman during a robbery in Hollywood. She survived.

At his murder trial, Wilson told jurors he had no remorse and told them to recommend the death penalty or he would kill again.

Source: The Associated Press, January 14, 2017

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