Japan executes Akihabara mass murderer

Japan has executed a 39-year-old man who killed seven people in Tokyo in 2008 during a stabbing rampage.

Tomohiro Kato committed one of the most shocking mass murders in the country's recent history.

He was 25 when he drove a truck into a lunch-time crowd of pedestrians at Akihabara shopping district, killing three people.

He then stabbed passers-by with a dagger, killing four and wounding eight.

He was apprehended by police at the scene and later admitted his crimes in his trial, saying he had been angered by online bullying.

The crime sparked much debate in Japanese society at the time over random killings, online influence and the failures in mental health support for young people. Laws on knife ownership were also tightened in response.

On Tuesday, eight years after Kato was sentenced to death, the government confirmed it had ordered his execution.

"The case has been fully tried in the courts and the courts' final conclusion was the death sentence... I have taken the greatest care possible in considering this case," Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said at a press conference.

Kato was hanged in the Tokyo Detention Centre. He lost his challenge to commute the sentence in Japan's top court in 2015.

Kato told police at the time of his arrest: "I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter who I'd kill."

Kato was born into a wealthy family and graduated from a top high school. But he failed his university entrance exams and struggled to maintain steady employment afterwards.

During his trial, prosecutors also painted a picture of a troubled young man, who had posted several times in online forums about his anger and alienation from society.

Prosecutors said Kato was particularly demoralised after a woman he was chatting with online stopped emailing him. On his way into the city the day of the attack, he'd declared his intention to carry out a mass murder.

The Tokyo District Court which sentenced him in 2011 said his brutal crime had not indicated "a shred of humanity".

Japan remains one of the few developed countries that still uses the death penalty despite criticism from international and local human rights groups.

It hanged three people last December. Kato's case is the country's first execution this year.

More than 100 prisoners remain on death row.

Mr Furukawa defended his country's use of capital punishment on Tuesday saying: "Since there is no end to heinous crimes, I regret death penalties remain necessary. Therefore abolishing the penalty is not appropriate."

Japan resumed executions when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to power in late 2021. Before that, the country had not carried out any executions for two years.

Source: BBC News, Frances Mao, July 26, 2022

🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Tennessee | Man set to be executed files motion claiming DNA evidence will exonerate him

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Attorneys for death row inmate Tony Carruthers filed a motion in Shelby County Criminal Court seeking immediate DNA testing on evidence they claim will prove his innocence in a 1994 triple murder. Carruthers is scheduled for execution on May 12. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murders of 24-year-old Marcellos Anderson, 17-year-old Delois Anderson, and 21-year-old Frederick Scarborough. Prosecutors at trial alleged the victims were buried alive in a Memphis cemetery as part of a drug-related robbery.

Singapore executes man for trafficking 1kg of cannabis

SINGAPORE — Singaporean authorities executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj at Changi Prison on Thursday, April 16, 2026, following his 2019 conviction for importing 1,009.1 grams of cannabis. Bamadhaj, 41, though some reports have cited his age as 46, was arrested on July 12, 2018, during a routine search at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Officers discovered the narcotics wrapped in plastic and hidden within his vehicle as he attempted to enter Singapore from Malaysia. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the threshold for the mandatory death penalty involving cannabis is 500 grams, a limit this shipment exceeded by more than double.

Florida | Man avoids death penalty in Daytona Beach triple murder

Jerome Anderson shot and killed Antoine Melvin, 42, John Burch, 65, and Patrick Lassiter, 35, in 2023. A man pleaded no contest to a triple-murder in Daytona Beach and was sentenced April 20 to three consecutive life terms in prison as part of a plea deal in which he avoided a possible death sentence. Jerome Anderson, 41, was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the 2023 triple-slaying. Anderson pleaded no contest to the three first-degree murder charges April 20 and, in exchange, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak agreed not to continue to pursue the death penalty.

Iran to execute first woman linked to mass protests after ‘forced confessions’

Bita Hemmati and three others have been sentenced to death for 'collusion' and 'propaganda.' Advocates claim the charges are baseless, citing a secretive process and state-televised interrogations. Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”

Florida Schedules Two Executions for Late April

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Florida death row is shrinking as executions accelerate

During the last 10 years, the number of death row inmates from Brevard county dropped from 12 down to three and soon it will likely be two. Chadwick Willacy, formerly of Palm Bay and who has spent 36 years on death row for the murder of his 58-year-old neighbor Marlys Sather, is set to be executed by lethal injection on April 21. Willacy is 56. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been setting records trying to clear as much of the death row roster as possible ― in 2025, Florida executed 19 inmates, more than twice the number of the previous high of eight in 2014. But the dwindling roster of Brevard death row inmates can also be traced to a misinterpretation by the Florida Supreme Court of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2016 requiring unanimous jury recommendations regarding the death penalty.

Florida Supreme Court upholds death sentence for man who raped & killed girl, babysitter in 1990

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the convictions and death sentences of Joseph Zieler for the 1990 murders of an 11-year-old girl and her babysitter, clearing the way for his execution after decades of the case remaining unsolved. Zieler, 61, was sentenced to death in 2023 for the slayings of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story. The decision by the state’s highest court marks a pivotal moment in one of Southwest Florida’s most notorious cold cases, which saw no progress until a 2016 DNA match linked Zieler to the crime scene.

Iran | Execution in Ardabil

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 15 April 2026: Mohammad Nourani Gargari, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Ardabil Central Prison. Simultaneously, a woman named Mona Shojaei was saved from execution and released from prison after nine years, having obtained the consent of the victim's next of kin. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Ardabil Central Prison on 1 March 2026. His identity has been established as Mahmoud Nourani Gargari, a 31-year-old father to a young child. The Ardabil native was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Texas | Death Sentence Overturned After 48 Years

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday that Clarence Jordan’s punishment was unconstitutional A death sentence handed down by a Harris County jury in 1978 was overturned Thursday by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Clarence Jordan, 70, has been on Texas Death Row for almost 50 years, serving out one of the longest death sentences in the nation while suffering from intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia, his attorney told the Houston Press.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog