Death Penalty News

A death row inmate spent Monday in court so a lawyer could fight his death sentence, despite his own desire to die. In 2016, Scotty Ray Gardner was arrested for the murder of Susan Stubbs. His attorney says his desire to be executed was made clear during the months leading up to his conviction and sentencing. Public and private statements since Gardner's trial reaffirm his desire to be executed. Gardner has just finished his eighth year on death row. Meanwhile, his case is undergoing a standard appeals process. At the Faulkner County Courthouse in Conway on Monday, his new attorney Lee Short called Gardner's former attorney to the stand. Thomas Scott Brisendine represented Gardner in the initial 2018 murder trial.

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.

A jobless man in China who hurled bricks from a high-rise building – one of which killed a woman on the street below – should be given the death penalty, prosecutors say. The man has admitted he had a grudge against society and was trying to kill indiscriminately so that he would be arrested and executed, according to a report by the news outlet cqcb.com. The tragedy happened on June 22 when the 28-year-old victim travelled to Changchun in China’s northeastern province of Jilin and visited a bustling snack street.

OSAKA - A 57-year-old man who went on trial at the Osaka District Court on Friday for killing a 25-year-old woman at the karaoke parlor she owned last year, requested the death penalty when asked if he pleaded guilty or not. Hiroshi Miyamoto, a company employee from Nishinomiya in Hyogo Prefecture, is accused of killing Mayuko Inada whose body was found at around 10:45 a.m. on June 14, 2021, at her Gomachan karaoke parlor on the fifth floor of a commercial building in Tenjinbashi, Kita Ward, Osaka, Fuji TV reported.  Police said Miyamoto, who was a regular customer at the karaoke parlor, has admitted going to the parlor on the night of June 11 and killing Inada by stabbing her at least 10 times in the chest and neck. A male friend of Inada, worried at not having heard from her, went to the building on June 14 and spoke to a woman who runs a coffee shop on the first floor. The woman, who was also a close friend of the Inada, has a master key to the karaoke parlor. She and the man we...

A knife attack by a 15-year-old girl shocked Japan this week, but the grim motivation for it -- an attempt to receive the death penalty -- is one that has been cited multiple times before. The suspect in the attack, who was arrested on the scene, says she randomly chose and stabbed a 53-year-old mother and her 19-year-old daughter.  The victims' serious injuries are expected to take about three months to heal. A restaurant worker near the scene of the crime told NHK that after the attacker was pinned to the ground, she stared up at the sky and asked if the daughter -- who sustained a 10-centimeter-deep wound to her back -- was dead. She didn't appear to put up any resistance, the witness said. RELATED |  Teenager Arrested After Stabbing 2 Women, Reportedly Wanted To ‘Practise’ Before Killing Mother The Metropolitan Police Department found three small knives on the suspect, including the one used in the attack. Junior high school suspect The attacker has been identified as a th...

Tokyo’s Shibuya district is usually more famous for its trendy and wholesome sights. However, the popular tourist destination recently became the scene of a shocking crime. According to Japanese media, a 15-year-old girl randomly stabbed a mother-and-daughter pair with a kitchen knife there. She reportedly did so as a ‘practice run’ as she planned to kill her mother. She also said that she “wanted to get the death penalty”. The teenager has since been arrested for attempted murder. Nippon.com reports that police were alerted to a stabbing incident at about 7.25pm on Saturday (20 Aug). The caller said that two victims, a woman in her 50s and her teenage daughter, were bleeding on the street. Kyodo News states that the suspect had approached the pair from behind as they were walking on a street near Shibuya Station. Along the narrow street lined with restaurants and houses, she stabbed them with the kitchen knife. Police said that the victims sustained serious injuries that will reported...

“It is inhumane, and by its design it is driving men insane. Solitary confinement makes the criminal justice system the criminal.” These words were testimony presented to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on solitary confinement June 19, 2012, by death row exoneree #138, Anthony C. Graves. (tinyurl.com/5cs4s59y) Graves spent 18.5 years wrongfully incarcerated in Texas, most of them on death row. Like all those on death row in Texas, Graves was housed in solitary confinement. “Death-sentenced prisoners in 12 states are automatically placed in indefinite solitary confinement, based solely on their death sentence. These prisoners spend between 21 and 24 [hours] per day in their cells, with very limited meaningful human contact. There is no possibility in any of these states for death-sentenced prisoners to have their placement reviewed, to be placed in a less restrictive custody level.” (Merel Pointier, “Cruel but not unusual: The automatic use of indefinite solitary confineme...

TOKYO -- A 28-year-old man was arrested early Sunday after a three-hour siege at a Tokyo yakiniku restaurant. Police said the man, Akito Araki, of unknown occupation, entered the restaurant in the basement of a building in Yoyogi, Shibuya Ward, Fuji TV reported.  He had dinner and then at around 9:30 p.m., he gave the manager a note in which he said he had activated a home-made bomb in a box.  He also brandished two knives, ordered other customers out of the restaurant and told the manager to call 110. Araki locked the door and barricaded it with chairs. He refused to come out while police negotiated with him.  The stand-off continued until about 12:30 a.m. when police decided to break in.  The manager was able to escape out the back door and was not harmed. Police said three objects wrapped in adhesive tape with cell phones attached were found in the box but none were explosive devices.  Police did not say what the objects were. Araki was quoted by police as sa...

TOKYO -- Police on Nov. 22 served fresh arrest warrants against the suspect in the Oct. 31 knife and arson attack on a Tokyo train that left 17 people injured. Kyota Hattori, 25, already stands accused of the attempted murder of a 72-year-old male passenger.  The Metropolitan Police Department investigation headquarters set up at Chofu Police Station has now hit Hattori with fresh arrest warrants on suspicion of the attempted murder of several other passengers who were on a Keio Line train traveling in the Tokyo suburban city of Chofu, as well as for allegedly setting the train on fire. In the latest warrants, Hattori is accused of scattering about 3 liters of lighter fluid he was carrying in plastic bottles on car No. 5 of an inbound express train bound for Shinjuku when the train was running between Fuda and Kokuryo stations at around 7:55 p.m. on Oct. 31. He then allegedly threw a lit oil lighter at the scattered fluid trying to kill several passengers on board at the time, inc...

KUMAMOTO, Japan—A man was arrested on suspicion of attempting to start a fire on a shinkansen bullet train in southwestern Japan on Monday morning, in an incident that appeared to be inspired by a recent arson attack on a train in Tokyo on Halloween, police said. Kiyoshi Miyake, 69, from Fukuoka was arrested at the scene, they said.  No injuries were reported on the train from Hiroshima bound for Kagoshima-Chuo Station, which was running in Kumamoto Prefecture at the time of the incident around 8:40 a.m., according to Kyushu Railway Co., known as JR Kyushu. Miyake was quoted as telling the prefectural police that he "wanted to imitate" the recent knife and arson attack on a train in Tokyo after seeing the news about it In the Oct. 31 incident, a man wearing a costume reminiscent of Batman villain the Joker injured 17 people, including one seriously, during the attack on a Keio Line train.  The man, Kyota Hattori, has told investigators he adores the Joker and wanted to kill p...

A knifeman who was dressed as the Joker when he went on a Halloween rampage and injured 17 people onboard a Tokyo commuter train has told police he 'adores' the Batman villain. Kyota Hattori, 24, reportedly stabbed 10 people and poured what is believed to have been oil around the train carriage before setting it on fire, causing panic among passengers who had initially thought it was a Halloween stunt. It was also reported hydrochloric acid was thrown during the attack, which occurred on the Keio express line bound for Shinjuku, the world's busiest rail station. Hattori told police that he had chosen the crowded train for the knife and arson attack where 'people couldn't run away', Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.   Hattori, who was seen sitting on the train after the attack in a Joker outfit smoking a cigarette and reportedly holding a knife, told detectives he was failing at work and he had troubled relationships with friends.       The Tokyo Fire Depar...