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Amnesty International says Japan executes mentally ill prisoners

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Although this is a serious issue, Amnesty is not qualified to make an assessment on interviews with family members about people they have never actually seen. "they are likely suffering from mental illness" and "which can lead to significant mental illness” are simply assumptions on their part. Of course, this is Amnesty International so better to be sensationalist than accurate.

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The report focuses on five male inmates currently on death row. Amnesty International, which staunchly opposes the death penalty, had no direct access to the prisoners. It relied on interviews with family members, lawyers and medical reports to conclude that they are likely suffering from mental illness.

So what? They are convicted of MURDERING INOCENT PEOPLE!! Let them rot, think about their stupidity, then hang them when you feel like it. It obviously deters some and is an obvious deserved punishment. If I were JP Government however, I would have to tell Amnesty Int. to "f" off.

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I agree, if they have done the crime, and for the death penalty it must have been a pretty heinous one, then let them rot.

However - the only thing that makes me slightly nervous is the "99.9% conviction rate" - I really hope all those people on death row actually DO deserve to be there.

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99.9% is mainly because they admit to the crime, and the vast majority of the time they go to the Koban themselves to report the crime and turn themselves in.... part of the society that took me a while to comprehend.

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Doesn't A.I. have anything better to do than worry about convicted prisoners on death row? How about worrying about the victim's families and survivors? Here's an idea for A.I. why don't they ask the Chinese govt for permission to check out the death row inmates there. They can start taking inventory of internal organs. What a useless organization.

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Seeing 99% of Japanese would be classified by western psychiatrist as having at least one mental disorder, is this really news? Type A, Paranoid, Self Important, and so on and so on and so on.

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This is honestly a comment out of curiosity and my own ignorance in the matter-- if they were of sound mind when they committed the crime and when they were convicted, deciding not to excute them because of their supposed "mental illnesses" after the fact sounds a lot like not executing a person because of old age or something similar. Could you equate that on the same level? I'm not sure. But I do feel that since they can't talk with the prisoners directly, how do they know if they're completely unbalanced or not? I agree with the previous comments here, there is really a difference between mentally ill and emotionally distraught (I mean, who wouldn't be, knowing that you were going to be executed someday but you didn't know when-- kind of a fitting punishment, and I'm not a huge advocate of the death penalty).

Regardless, the title of this article alone is misleading. It makes it sound like they just kill mentally ill prisoners to make space or something.

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Interesting how countries like Japan and America are supposed to be 21st democracies, whereas in actual fact, act like pre-historic caveman when it comes to 'justice'. State-sponsored 'justice' / revenge-killing/murder is not illustrative of leading 1st world countries.

Aside from the death penalty being abhorrent, the execution of mentally-ill people is even sicker.

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Um, pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but aren't they already insane at their time of incarceration? Isn't that why they are sentenced to death in the first place? It makes me glad to know they are treated as such. Is Amnesty suggesting they should be treated as fully functional members of society and given the privileges of lessor criminals? These prisoners should think themselves lucky they get meals. Starvation would be a much more appropriate death for these animals, especially that nut leader of the OAM group. I can't believe he is still kicking around, but if this is the treatment he is receiving I guess it makes it OK.

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Is Amnesty suggesting they should be treated as fully functional members of society and given the privileges of lessor criminals?

Not treated, maybe rehabilitated? Long harsh decades-long sentences for sure, but perish the thought we should forgive / help rehabilitate anyone for anything, ever.

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Japan executes mentally ill murderers.

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Amnesty International, I am sorry but so far I find your work to be not based on serious research and studies. There are millions of people who are against the injustice, lack of human rights etc all over the world. You are just like any of them except you function as some organistaion. Creating a big noise and standing and campaigning and having flags and badges, signing cricket balls did not bring any results. You can only fret and foment, but nothing you can do.

Disillusioned is right about the mentally ill prisoners state of mind. Unless you want to do some serious research and prove otherwise, you will get no where with all these claims you are making. Applies not only in Japan, but other countries too. Etnic cleansing going on in South Asia, is there anything you can do about it?

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Seeing 99% of Japanese would be classified by western psychiatrist as having at least one mental disorder, is this really news? Type A, Paranoid, Self Important, and so on and so on and so on.

Reps

Nutter Nation

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would put Japan in violation of U.N. standards for individuals facing the death penalty.

It wouldn`t be the only UN violation.

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societymike:

It obviously deters some

wrong it obviously doesn't deter some cause they are still doing it. You trying to use an unprovable negative to make an argument?

obvious deserved punishment.

except when it isn't Tochigi case in point

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All criminals - murderers, stalkers, perverts - are mentally ill. They should be imprisoned in special facilities for mental treatment but not killed.

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Just wondering do they have a guidebook : "How to make your inmates being Insane"

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99.9% is mainly because they admit to the crime

just because they admit to it doesn`t mean they did it.

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99.9% is mainly because they admit to the crime just because they admit to it doesn`t mean they did it.

Yes that's true. The admission is usually combined with evidence.

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What kind of standards for mental insability are they using? Hell, by the way it sounds my OCD should keep me out of prison because I'm mentally ill. Pfft, if your lucid enough to commit the crime than you should expect swift retribution.

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"Pfft, if your lucid enough to commit the crime than you should expect swift retribution."

That's the whole point! But you missed it. If the death penalty is to be carried out, it should not involve first subjecting the convict to twenty years of daily mental torture, driving them to madness.

This is old news by the way, AI are not the first to note the mentally debilitating effects of the Japanese death row.

As for the deterring effect, there is none - or rather, if there is any correlation at all, it is the other way, with executions resulting in a slight increase in the murder rate in society.

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or they can just be nice to them a couple days before they execute them. Take'em to Disneyland or something like that.

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Execute them. take their DNA out of the gene pool.

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What do you do with Taliban who are ready to die(they make sucide vedio) and then kill innocents.? The terrorist Kasab who carried out80 killings in Mumbai cannot be hanged as per Amnesty. But he wants to be hanged as a path to heaven. Now what do civilised do to these fundemntalists?

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I think that executing mentally ill prisoners is just fine. If them murdering someone before they were on death row was sane, then what are they capable of now that their crazy? I think they should, however, execute them faster. While they sit in jail for years and years, tax dollars are paying for them to rot in their cells, when they could go to far more useful things. Not executing murderers is even worse, what if they live for decades in jail, the amount of taxes wasted on them is ridiculous. I know the United States spends more money on prisons then they do education. So I say execute the murderers and perverts of society, their victims didn't get a second chance, why should they?

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Execute them. take their DNA out of the gene pool.

But take some DNA sample first, so 20 years later at least you can prove if they were innocent... :)

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A "normal" person would not commit a crime heinous enough to warrant the death penalty would they? Even if it was just for that brief moment of passion or anger during which they acted insane. Would they then not all be considered "insane"? So regardless of supposed mental health, one must either be for, or against, capital punishment. This inane argument over mental capacity is simply a diversion from the real issue at hand.

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Killing Killers is questionable.

However, Torturing Killers for 10, 20, 30+ years and then Killing them, is surely a reflection on a seriously questionable society.

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It has been proven that the death penalty does not prevent crime, however, it can prevent overcrowding...

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I always thought the argument that executing the mentally ill was inhumane was kind of funny. If someone is mentally ill and commits a heinous crime how is being crazy a get out of jail free card? Remove them from the gene pool, just a shame you can't do it before they murder and dismember innocent people.

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Browny1: I agree with you. An eye for an eye mentality seems barbaric to me as does hanging someone. Keeping a person in solitary confinement for decades and driving them crazy is just plain torture. Surely if the person wasn't mentally ill before, they would be after that.

Besides, of these 102 people on death row, isn't it possible that a couple of them are not guilty? We shouldn't be so quick to say 'kill them all'. The death penalty doesn't actually accomplish anything but perhaps makes some people feel better because they've gotten revenge.

I would like to think that we are humane human beings who have some respect for life; even the lives of those who have commited murder. Can't we find a better way to ensure public safety? Like maybe preventing murders from happening in the first place.

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