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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 SC: Double-killer as minor will face gallows

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Death Chamber
at Tokyo Detention Center
The Supreme Court upheld the death penalty Monday for a man convicted of strangling and then raping a young mother and murdering her 11-month-old daughter in 1999 in Yamaguchi Prefecture when he was 18.

The high-profile trial has sparked a lengthy legal debate over whether someone who committed such extremely cruel acts as a minor should be sent to the gallows. Initial lower court trials resulted in life imprisonment.

The top court's 1st Petty Bench, presided over by Justice Seishi Kanetsuki, branded the crime "very evil" and said hanging is "inevitable," as there was no room for leniency even though the defendant, Takayuki Otsuki, was a minor when he committed the crimes.

Otsuki was 18 years and one month old at the time of the crimes, thus his name was withheld because he was a minor. But with Monday's top court ruling, it has been made public.

The Juvenile Law stipulates that someone younger than 18 must not be sentenced to death, but with 20 being the age of majority, the way sentences are meted out to 18- and 19-year-old offenders tends to be controversial.


Source: The Japan Times, Feb. 20, 2012
Location: Japan
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