Cardinal calls for Japan to stop using the death penalty

The archbishop of Tokyo, Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, is renewing calls for abolition of the death penalty in Japan and for clemency for 2 men, 1 convicted of murder and already sentenced to death, the other awaiting sentencing.

In 2023, Masanori Aoki stabbed 2 women in the city of Nakano and then shot 2 policemen with a hunting rifle. His defense team asked for a lesser sentence, saying the man suffered from schizophrenia, but the sentencing court imposed the death penalty on Oct. 14.

The next day, prosecutors in Japan said they would seek the death penalty against another man, Hideaki Nozu, who admitted to killing 3 close family members and gravely wounding another with a crossbow in June 2020. Hideaki Nozu is to be sentenced on Oct. 31.

Japan and the United States are the only Group of Seven (G7) nation to carry out capital punishment.

Kikuchi noted the verdict against Aoki is not yet final, since the defense attorney immediately announced their intention to appeal.

“The defense’s argument highlighted that the defendant suffers from schizophrenia and emphasized the extreme rarity of firearm-related crimes in Japan, a nation known for its exceptionally strict gun control laws,” the cardinal told Crux.

He was speaking with Crux after receiving his titular church of San Giovanni Leonardi in Rome.

“The Catholic Church in Japan opposes capital punishment, calling for the protection of all life as a gift from the Creator. The Church urges the government to abolish the death penalty and reform the Japanese criminal justice system,” he said.

“This call faces strong governmental resistance, however, as the state frequently cites a 2014 survey indicating that 80 percent of the general public accepts capital punishment as a necessary form of justice,” Kikuchi said.

“I absolutely condemn the cruel crime of taking 4 lives, and the person responsible must certainly be held accountable for the crime committed,” the cardinal added.

“However, accountability must include a rehabilitation process that leads the individual to understand the immeasurable value of human life and the need to protect it at all costs. While I detest such crimes, I fundamentally believe that if we uphold the value of human life and dignity, we must not employ the same method as the criminals by taking a life away,” he told Crux.

On June 27, 2025, after three years without an execution in Japan, authorities executed Takahiro Shiraishi, a notorious serial killer.

Amnesty International says executions in Japan are shrouded in secrecy, with prisoners typically given only a few hours’ notice and their families usually notified about the execution only after it has taken place.

Concern over the use of the death penalty in Japan increased last year, when Hakamada Iwao was acquitted after spending 45 years in prison awaiting capital punishment for a crime he didn’t commit.

“We must also acknowledge the significant systemic issues surrounding the death penalty in Japan,” Kikuchi said.

“Currently, 105 individuals sentenced to death remain held in custody, some for decades; one person was sentenced in 1970 and has still not been executed,” the cardinal said.

“This situation underscores the grave risk of irreversible error, as evidenced by the case of Mr. Iwao Hakamada. He was sentenced to death in 1980 for a murder he did not commit and spent 47 years in custody before his innocence was finally proven on Oct. 9 last year,” he told Crux.

“Defense teams continue to claim false accusation in other death row cases. Since human beings are fallible and mistakes are inevitable, the possibility remains that innocent individuals may have been executed in the past,” the cardinal said.

“Furthermore, the retrial procedure in the Japanese legal system is notoriously complicated and difficult to pursue. Mr. Hakamada and his supporters are now advocating for necessary legal changes to broaden access to retrials,” Kikuchi explained.

He told Crux that in view of all these circumstances, the systemic flaws, the protracted custody of inmates, and the foundational value of human life and dignity, ”I cannot accept the death penalty as a standard form of punishment.”

Source: cruxnow.com, Staff, October 14, 2025

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

— Oscar Wilde

Comments

Oklahoma Sets November Execution Date for Air Force Veteran Jim Pavatt Amid Claims of Wrongful Conviction

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has scheduled the execution of Air Force veteran and longtime death row prisoner Jim Pavatt for Nov. 12, as his attorneys continue to challenge his conviction and contend that prosecutors relied on false arguments, disputed forensic evidence and an alleged confession they later described as bogus. Pavatt, who served nearly 22 years in the Air Force and rose to the rank of master sergeant, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 killing of Rob Andrew in Oklahoma City. His execution is scheduled for the day after Veterans Day.

Indiana high court sets Nov. 5 execution date for convicted child killer

The court’s decision came a little more than two months after Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita asked the justices to schedule Weisheit’s execution. State attorneys argued Weisheit had exhausted his state and federal appeals, had no active stay of execution, and could lawfully be put to death. The inmate’s attorneys opposed setting a date, saying they needed more time to pursue available legal proceedings and possible executive clemency. The defense additionally pointed to public records that it said showed the Indiana Department of Correction lacked the drugs needed to conduct an execution and had no lawful source from which to obtain them.

He Spent 27 Years on Death Row as a Wrongfully Convicted Man. What Comes Next?

23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the decades he spent in Louisiana’s Angola Prison—and how, even after being released, he still isn’t truly free. Jimmie “Chris” Duncan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he assessed his temporary home from the parking lot of a rundown motel in central Louisiana. Sure, there’s drug dealing and prostitution, he said on a recent summer afternoon. And he suspected his neighbors were cooking meth on a floor below the room he paid $350 a week to rent.

Florida executes Harold Gene Lucas

Florida state officials executed 74-year-old Harold Gene Lucas by lethal injection on Tuesday evening, concluding a 50-year legal saga stemming from the 1976 murder of a 16-year-old girl in Bonita Springs. STARKE, Fla. -- A man convicted of killing a teenage girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends was put to death Tuesday in the first of three executions planned this month in Florida. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, authorities said. He was sentenced to death for the 1976 shooting attack on Jill Piper and the wounding of her friends, Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice.

Hanging of Osaka Arsonist is Japan’s First Execution Under Takaichi Government

As a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. The execution of Takami Sunao—an arsonist whose 2009 attack in Osaka killed five—on August 21, 2026, was Japan’s first use of capital punishment in just over a year. Over a Decade from Sentencing to Execution Takami Sunao was executed on August 21, 2026 , for a 2009 arson attack at an Osaka pachinko parlor that killed five people. In July 2009, Takami poured gasoline on the floor of a pachinko parlor in Osaka and set it alight, killing 5 customers and staff members and injuring 10 more. While the defense argued that he was in a state of diminished capacity, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in February 2016. The execution took place 17 years after the initial crime and 10 and a half years after the death sentence was finalized.

Algeria's President orders Penal Code amendment to introduce death penalty with immediate execution

The president has raised the possibility that some of the fires may have been criminally set and ordered authorities to investigate their causes and identify those responsible. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ordered amendments to the country’s penal code to allow the death penalty to be carried out against people convicted of deliberately setting forest fires, after a wave of devastating blazes killed 12 people and caused extensive damage across the country.

Florida set to carry out 14th execution this year in the nation's busiest death chamber

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends is set to be executed Tuesday in the first of three lethal injections scheduled this month in the state. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, is set to receive a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke starting at 6 p.m. He would be the 14th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has already signed death warrants for two more executions set for later this September.

Florida | Jury recommends death sentence for Jeffrey Crum in killing of 12-year-old girl

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County jury has recommended the death penalty for a 65-year-old man who was found guilty last week of raping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Sentencing for Jeffrey Crum was held this week. Crum abducted Odom in 1993 after she stepped off her school bus in Pasco County. Her body was found in a Hernando County orange grove six days later.

Ex-corrections officials urge governor to commute Kansas death sentences

Former Kansas corrections officials are urging Governor Laura Kelly to grant clemency to the state's death row inmates. Former Kansas Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz has several reasons why he thinks the state should abolish the death penalty. Werholtz, who served as secretary from 2002 to 2010 and returned on an interim basis in 2019, uses his discussions with peers and family members of victims as well as experiences of seeing wrongly convicted people getting exonerated as his guiding points.

Japan executes man convicted of killing five in 2009 Osaka pachinko parlor arson

Japan on Friday announced the execution of a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, the first execution by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government as the country faces growing calls for more transparency and the abolition of capital punishment. The Justice Ministry said Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged to death earlier Friday. Takami in 2009 set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog