2 Tokyo doctors indicted without arrest over 2-year-old boy's death

WTF is wrong with the justice system in Japan that it takes 7 years to arrest somebody? And why are they not in jail now after all this time? Because they have higher status than the Regular Joe.

Why have they not been arrested?

And why are they not in jail now after all this time? Because they have higher status than the Regular Joe.

I imagine because their intention was not to kill or injure the boy, but to treat him. There appears to have been negligence, buy it is hardly murder.

Doctors make mistakes, like everyone, it's just the mistakes can be fatal. Bankers can make mistakes and earn huge bonuses. When doctors make mistakes people die, but we need to be careful about imprisoning them for doing their Joby (albeit badly).

by the principle that everyone should be treated equally under the law.

this doctors must be detained in solitary confinement and forced to remain there 23days~7years until they sign a criminal confession.

is the Japanese rule of law. abide it!

The toddler received propofol equivalent to 2.7 times the level appropriate for an adult over about 70 hours, before dying three days later of a side effect from the treatment, the report said.

That is criminal behavior, not a simple mistake. The doctors may not have intended to murder the child but they did exactly that.

WTF is wrong with the justice system in Japan that it takes 7 years to arrest somebody? And why are they not in jail now after all this time? Because they have higher status than the Regular Joe.

While a lot of the time there are cases where prosecutors and police seem to give preferential treatment based on social status of the suspect, I don't think that is the issue here. With a case like this involving fairly complex medical evidence and several doctors whose actions had to be assessed in terms of their contribution to the death, its not surprising that it took a long time for prosecutors to decide to indict them.

this doctors must be detained in solitary confinement and forced to remain there 23days~7years until they sign a criminal confession.

The reason they weren't detained for 23 days is that the prosecutors have already decided to indict them, meaning they think the evidence they already have is sufficient to proceed to trial (with or without confessions, and in a case like this they've probably already obtained statements by the doctors). They only detain suspects for those 23 days when they need a confession or some other evidence from the suspect.

With any criminal case, once the prosecutors have indicted, the suspect is entitled to release on bail unless the fall into a number of exceptions (charged with a serious crime like murder, likely to run away or destroy evidence prior to trial).

Everyone makes mistakes.

While a lot of the time there are cases where prosecutors and police seem to give preferential treatment based on social status of the suspect, I don't think that is the issue here.

You're right , is outstanding how arbitrary and obscure is the administration of justice.

With a case like this involving fairly complex medical evidence and several doctors whose actions had to be assessed in terms of their contribution to the death, its not surprising that it took a long time for prosecutors to decide to indict them

7 years?! really?!

They only detain suspects for those 23 days when they need a confession or some other evidence from the suspect.

That's what I'm talking about.

They could just detained them, put in solitary confinement and force a confession.

The doctors would be convicted and sentenced right away, no need to investigate for 7 long years.

I'm guessing these guys will be two among the 10,000 workers needed for the Tokyo Olympics Medical staff?

They could just detained them, put in solitary confinement and force a confession.

The doctors would be convicted and sentenced right away, no need to investigate for 7 long years.

I'm not super keen on a criminal justice system that forces people to confess. All you'll get is a bunch of innocent people confessing to things they didn't do. In fact, that is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions in Japan.

Putting that aside though, they don't need a confession in a case like this. There is no disputing what actions the doctors did, they have all the evidence they need to establish that these doctors put too much sedative into the child. The doctors aren't denying it, which makes it different from a typical murder case where the suspect denies being the one who pulled the trigger (or whatever the act was), so a confession is irrelevant to the case.

@bokudaToday 01:30 pm JST

They could just detained them, put in solitary confinement and force a confession.

Or, maybe the system is actually more reasonable than its critics give it credit for. In 2019, arrests reached 111,402, but that was out of 732,563 people processed by the PPO or 15.2%. These docs were just in the other 84.8%.

SandyBeachHeaven Today  01:11 pm JST

Everyone makes mistakes.

There are 'mistakes' like leaving an umbrella on a train. This is negligence, pure and simple.

I doubt if any parent would ever willingly accept 'Everyone makes mistakes' as an excuse for the death of a child.

@Kazuaki ShimazakiT Today 06:03 pm

The fact that there's forced confessions destroys any credibility.

How can a police officer be torturing detainees in the 21st. century?!

Who are the criminals in this system?!

Propofol is contraindicted for use on children under 16 years old. How come the doctors didn't know that?