crime

Gangster, arson-murderer hanged

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I don't see any hordes of Japanese protesting the Japanese legal system or the death penalty. They must be satisfied with what they got. What I do see are posters that want to apply their vision of the perfect society to everyone else in the world. Whether or not the DP is a deterrent or not is a mute point, the defendant had their day in a court of law and were convicted, if the sentence was death, execute them.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Until Japan brings it's arrest & "interview" law into the 21st Century I can see innocent people being executed. The list of inmates released both from death-row as well as normal sentences just gets longer & longer each year.

I can't say Iwao Hakamada was "lucky" as he was jailed for almost half a century but I guess at least he wasn't executed. No form of compensation can make up for a wrong execution.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Yeah, right. A British anti-DP NGO's own survey isn't showing that. 44% 'definitely keep' + 35% 'probably keep' = 79% keep

Sort of. But you've done exactly what the study suggested was unfair - take those who definitely agree with death penalty, and those who agree but with some reservations and put them together into a single group - and then claim overwhelming support. By doing so you extinguish any chance to discuss the doubts people among the 'probably' group might.

There's an older paper (by the same author) that outlines a lot of the main concerns better than I could (https://www.westminster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/43429/v.4_4.pdf).

The death penalty doesn't trouble me as much the extreme efforts governments have gone to ensure that nearly everything about it remains secret. What worries them so much about having an honest, open and public discussion about it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Justice is usually a lie or an accident.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Scrote: These are surveys conducted by the government and are therefore unreliable. Other surveys show the pro and anti percentages much closer.

Yeah, right. A British anti-DP NGO's own survey isn't showing that.

44% 'definitely keep' + 35% 'probably keep' = 79% keep

is nothing close to

1% 'definitely abolish' + 3% 'probably abolish' = 4% abolish.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201303130061

British survey: Only 44% of Japanese 'definitely' support death penalty

A British-based NGO has taken issue with the Japanese government's contention that 85 percent of the population support the death penalty. ...

The Death Penalty Project, a human rights group seeking to abolish capital punishment around the world, released a report March 12 of its own findings on the issue. It said only 44 percent of Japanese are strongly in favor of the death penalty. ....

THE DETAILS .... (drum roll) ....

... According to the survey, 44 percent of respondents said the death penalty "should definitely be kept" and 35 percent said it "should probably be kept."

One percent of the respondents said death penalty "should definitely be abolished" and 3 percent said it "should probably be abolished."

An opinion poll carried out by the Japanese government in 2009 found a support rate of 85.6 percent for the death penalty.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Surveys have shown the death penalty has overwhelming public support in Japan

These are surveys conducted by the government and are therefore unreliable. Other surveys show the pro and anti percentages much closer.

Life in prison should suffice for these criminals.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

In your apparently naïve view of the world you seem to assume that murderers give their victims a trial costing millions and an appeals process that can last decades.

Exactly. Equivocating murder by an individual with capital punishment by a legal system shows a serious lack of ability in logical thinking. That's like saying the government are kidnappers because they imprison people.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

i personally like the british way- convict the murderer give them life- act surprised when they walk away from work release 10 years later and kill again- give them life a second time- act surprised again when they walk away from work release 5 years later and kill again and arrest them a third time-

of course life in GB is not really life most of the time, that costs money....

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@ BurakuminDes - I agree, especially if the child's killer is the parent who should have loved them.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@ClippityClop

Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders

In your apparently naïve view of the world you seem to assume that murderers give their victims a trial costing millions and an appeals process that can last decades. If only the convicted had been so merciful.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

i guess im not the only japanese person that likes death row and prisons that are actually unpleasent to live in.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

They should have spent the rest of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole. That way, if they were guilty, they would forfeit any chance of a normal life, and if they were innocent, there would still be a chance to be cleared. I don't support capital punishment. And that is speaking as someone who has had family members murdered. We are serving a life sentence; the murderer should too. Death is too easy.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Rest in Peace to the VICTIMS of these two dirtbags. The arsonist shouldve considered himself a very fortunate man : unlike his innocent victims, he had the luxury of not being burned to death. Those two guys won't be missed by anyone.

Japan has got this right I have to say - I just wish the system would now consider executing the most heinous of all criminals - child killers.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

I think someone who takes another person's life unjustifiably (ie not in pure self-defense) forfeits their own right to live. If only justice was so clear though. The thought of innocents on death row makes my stomach churn...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

So over the past few hundred years the so-called 'developed' countries that still execute people have somehow made the method of killing cleaner? Does that mean it is justified? Is there really much difference between stoning someone to death or hanging someone or injecting a human being with poison? It would seem recently in the US that those killed by lethal injection take longer to die than those who are killed by stoning. The point being we try to justify government-sanctioned killings my making the method seem less crude but the fact remains.......killing is killing, no matter how it is done.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

@kyushubill

It after all is the Japanese people's nation so it is run by their standards.

You are of course assuming that 100% of Japanese support the death penalty. And you're pinning 'standards' to a pitiful lack of public awareness of this issue or debate on it.

If most Pakistanis approved of public stonings, would that satisfy your morals?

2 ( +6 / -4 )

I'm on the fence about the death penalty, mostly because of the possibility of executing innocents. But one argument that holds no sway with me is that the idea that a judicial system with a series of checks and balances that executes someone is somehow at the same level as a murderer who kills because of their own human failings. Sorry, but they are not at all equivalent.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

I'd like to know the number of innocent people killed by the state, eye for an eye so Justice Ministers on that argument should hang for each and every innocent victim killed under their watch.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Maybe justice and revenge both. If the human life is holly, but the justice extremely tries to repair the lost of loved beings. ****

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Presently, I'm in my pro-death penalty mode. One major justification is that a kind of moral symmetry is restored through taking the lives of those who committed capital crimes. The families and friends of victims are made to feel something broken has been fixed and civilization itself is more likely to remain intact.

0 ( +8 / -8 )

Good Job; NEXT !

4 ( +14 / -10 )

The death penalty, when actually applied, has the lowest recidivism rate of all criminal punishments.

0 ( +8 / -8 )

Well I do not see many Japanese protesting in the streets against the death penalty and they did vote Abe back into PM and knew he and the LDP are pro death penalty. It after all is the Japanese people's nation so it is run by their standards.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

Surveys have shown the death penalty has overwhelming public support in Japan

Yes, but there remain a lot of doubts that these surveys serve to manipulate public opinion rather than gauge it. And why is public opinion here so important anyway? This 'because the people want it' (or don't want it) thinking doesn't hold so much sway over other areas of government.

But what I really don't get is if the government has so much faith in the justice system - and the public fully support capital punishment - why aren't people just being sent from the courts to the gallows? Who benefits from someone on death row for decades?

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders

-8 ( +11 / -18 )

It's not vengence, it's not a deterrent, it's friggin' punishment for taking someones else's life. The vengence and deterrent part are collateral.

9 ( +18 / -10 )

As a deterrent, it's not. It only degrades the society down to the same level as those who commit the act.

0 ( +12 / -11 )

Is an execution a personal choice by Justice minister???

Essentially yes.

The minister is given a death warrant to stamp. If s/he doesn't do so, the execution can't go ahead.

At least one past minister was resolutely opposed to the death penalty, and refused to approve any executions.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Okay I understood that Mr. Shinzo Abe can chose a justice minister but Is an execution a personal choice by Justice minister???

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Death Penalty justifies the philosophy of Murder being the solution to solve a problem. Isn't that what these criminals did and the reason why they are convicted and executed? Death Penalty helps to reduce crimes? then how come that almost everyday we still see henious murder news in this country and overseas that has death penalty? how about the people who were victims of mistrials and got executed? can we bring them back to life and say "we've made a mistake?" Hakamada san is a living proof that justice system is never fair and will never be, so for the good of everyone just abolish death penalty.

-2 ( +8 / -9 )

"About vengeance? Justice? an eye for an eye? Nah, those are for law books, in Seattle streets or Tokyo streets, it‘s determent, it makes criminals, those really bad ones, think twice."

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

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