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A 37-year-old woman has been given a suspended sentence after being found guilty of burying the body of her 11-month-old daughter in the ground outside their residence in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, in 2019.
The Asahikawa District Court on Monday sentenced Marino Kyoda to 2 1/2 years in prison, suspended for four years, for abandoning the body of her second-oldest daughter Reo in July 2019, Sankei Shimbun reported. In his ruling, Judge Minefumi Misawa said the defendant’s motive to bury the infant and her failure to call an ambulance were selfish acts due to fear that the child’s death would be discovered.
The court heard that burying the baby was suggested by Kyoda’s 39-year-old husband, Ryo. The court decided to give her a suspended sentence after she admitted her guilt and expressed remorse.
At the time of their arrest, police said the couple’s family register showed they had three children. On June 29, 2019, two of their children — a boy and a girl — were seen walking by themselves about four kilometers from their home by a police patrol, and placed in protective custody.
Police questioned Kyoda and his wife at their home. During their visit, there was one other child at home — a boy who was not registered. At that point, the parents admitted they had a fourth child -- an 11-month-old girl -- who had died in the autumn of 2018, and whose remains they buried outside.
Kyodo’s husband is being tried separately.
© Japan Today
20 Comments
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Ricky Sanchez
What is wrong with these people in charge? Watch the man get sentenced to prison..because he is a man. This is just insane!
sir_bentley28
So what I gathered from this case and justice system is if I commit a crime and "admit guilt and show remorse", I can get away with it! Dually noted!
jalan5
failure to call an ambulance were selfish acts due to fear that the child’s death would be discovered.
At least they did not have to worry about flash floods, funnel spiders, and mice.
Gaijinjland
And this is justice how?
Fighto!
Disgusting. Proof again that childrens lives are not worth anything.
The sick child killer should have been hung, nothing less.
Joe Unc
And the cause of death? Murder ?
Kazuaki Shimazaki
Could the above people please explain their disgust?
Sure, it is possible the daughter was murdered, or abused to the point of death, or died due to the parents' negligence. It's also possible the baby's life may somehow be salvaged if an ambulance was called. But none of that was proven in court, so mother's provable crime is limited to her burying an already dead human body. No lives, health, property or private rights were infringed.
Why is this not a candidate for a suspended sentence?
Sven Asai
It’s probably only weighing the options. With that suspended sentence they can have potentially another child or children, have to care themselves for the other child, can continue their work, estimated some agricultural or so. If you put both into prison, the opposite will happen. That family is destroyed, no more children for the aging society, the public has to care about the other child, that also having no real future then etc. and in general less people working there in that estimated rural area with aged people and severe fluctuations. There is soon no other way to decide for all courts in general, letting more and more people getting through with bad things. That’s something to get used to.
Do the hustle
The question remains, how did the child die?
Sal Affist
First-time offenders who cooperate with the Police and express remorse in court have a significant chance at a suspended sentence under the formulae that Japanese judges use to calculate the sentences.
kaimycahl
@Ricky Sanchez
What is wrong with these people in charge? Watch the man get sentenced to prison..because he is a man. This is just insane! Whats wrong with these people is the same mentality of people asking the question and answering it. Watch the man get sentenced to prison because he is a man. What a statement, if he gets sentenced it is because he is the one that suggested what the court heard that burying the baby was suggested by Kyoda’s 39-year-old husband, Ryo. Some people read with their eyes and can not comprehend with their brains. The court decided to give her a suspended sentence after she admitted her guilt and expressed remorse.
therougou
Calm down and write in complete sentences please. So it is a worse crime if you suggest something, even if both parties carried out the act? They both are disgusting and deserve jail time. Just look at how their other kids were walking alone kilometers from their house, after 1 child had already died. No doubt trying to escape their monster parents.
ReynardFox
Given that she received a suspended sentence, I think it’s safe to say the cause of death wasn’t murder. Remember she wasn’t on trial for the child’s death. She was on trial for abandoning a corpse.
Wolfpack
Well let’s step back and examine the issue. If a woman decides that the baby should not live that is her choice and the man is relieved of responsibility. The man is only responsible for a child if the mother decides to let it live. The article leaves out the crucial piece of information needed to evaluate responsibility- how did the child die? Current moral standards dictate that if the man killed his child he is responsible and should go to jail. If the Mom chooses otherwise then her choice should be respected - thus the suspended sentence.
ReynardFox
Given that she wasn’t charged with killing the child, one can assume that the prosecution did not believe there was sufficient evidence she did so.
Toasted Heretic
Another terrible loss of life, and one which we don't have the full details about.
No. Barbaric, leave the eye for an eye stuff back in the times of antiquity, where it belongs.
sir_bentley28
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.