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U.N. warns against executing Aum cult members seeking retrial

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Foolish barbarians do not understand that capital punishment is counter productive - it does not work on criminals, because they almost never plan on getting caught. Crime of passion, crime of despair - punishment is never a factor that has any time to be taken into consideration to affect their on-spot decision to break the law. However, and which is the case here, capital punishment affects organized crime (like yakuza scum, who would still not get capital punishment because of the ties in the system) and, most importantly, insane madmen like Aum cultists. For them getting caught, being shown to the whole world, is the part of the process. Their crimes have to be investigated and the word about it has to be spread for it to fulfill their chaotic desires. You can't fight them because being legally murdered for them is the equivalent to martyrship.

What you can do, is fight them on equal terms. If it is public knowledge that there is no capital punishment, that criminals and insanes will spend the rest of their blighted lives in a prison, being sustained on tax just to be made an example, how meaningless the days they spent knowing that in the end it ends all the same - then they can't become martyrs. They become a rotting criminal amongst the likes of them. Half of them would lose the point of going through with their criminal acts - there is no easy way out anymore, they will have to become a part of the prison. Denying them this "quick end to suffering", for now, is the only way to battle them, to prevent them from acting. This way, the punishment is a deterrent. But capital punishment is such a load of crap y'all should be ashamed of yourselves.

-7 ( +12 / -19 )

Who is the UN again? Japan should do what Japan has decided to do. Japan is a sovereign country. The UN is what...and organization?

1 ( +19 / -18 )

The UN doesn't need to stick their noses in this.

Execute them, every single one of them.

0 ( +18 / -18 )

I'm left with the conclusion that if the death penalty does nothing towards stopping crime/criminals, since they never plan on getting caught, then certainly the notion of spending the rest of their lives in prison also will have no deterrence, as the same criminals have the same plan of never getting caught.

Therefore, just have convicted criminals punishment fit their crime. Rapists get raped. Murders get murdered.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Good on the UN for holding this corporate dictatorship to some level of accountability.

-3 ( +11 / -14 )

These murderers knowingly broke the social contract by which the rest of us live, and in doing so gave up the right to the life that we all hold so dear.

It was a done deal the moment the sarin has was released. They forfeited their lives in that split second.

10 ( +16 / -6 )

Sourpuss, exactly.

all of these bleeding heart "say no to the death penalty" human rights activists need to know when to stay out. Anyone who intentionally does such a heinous thing to other human beings has forfeited their right to be treated as a human themselves.

Even if their executions dont happen for another ten years, it'll be a fine day for Lady Justice when they're twitching at the end of the lesson no drop.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

damn autocorrect!

That should've been:

".. it'll be a fine day for Lady Justice when they're twitching at the end of the long drop"

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Regardless of one's opinion of the death penalty, the UN has no moral authority here. Typical for them to go after an advanced country and one that pays much of the UN costs while they ignore massive human rights elsewhere. Like a corrupt cop who tickets a citizen for jaywalking while bandits shoot and rape across the street.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

If I were the authority of Japanese government, I have had given them over a hundred death sentences and executed within a month of their acts. I don't care what UN said. UN is becoming an idle body of mouth of the terrorists using Human Rights all the time. Please do it quick, Japan!!

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Japan executes only 3 or 4 a year.  UN never tells to China  who excutes thousands.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Japan executes only 3 or 4 a year. UN never tells to China who excutes thousands.

Or Saudi Arabia. Who make a spectical out of it beheading people in stadiums. Must protect the petrodollar.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Execute the scum bags.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

"the U.N. WARNS" ??? and....?

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

The death penalty is outdated, barbaric and beneath the standard of a just society.

I don't understand people calling for someone else's execution and thinking they are special : they are just following their most basic instinct, just like an animal. Just like the murderer. Nothing to gloat about.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Lodging an appeal means they do not want to die.

But neither did the people they killed, some quickly and some slowly.

And there are thousands still alive today struggling with the terrible after-effects of the Sarin.

Interesting read background here: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/survivors-of-the-gas-attack-in-syria-face-long-term-illness/

Quote in part: "On June 27, 1994 a Japanese terrorist group, Aum Shinrikyo, released sarin in Matsumoto, poisoning some 600 people; 58 of whom were admitted to hospitals, and seven victims died. On March 20, 1995, the same fanatical religious group launched a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system causing over 5000 casualties, including 54 deaths. 

But follow-up studies on the survivors have found a wide range of serious disorders, including reduced brain volume, diminished mental function , eye problems , chronic fatigue, abnormalities in chromosomes of blood cells, damage to nerves outside the brain (peripheral nervous system), problems with balance, abnormal brain wave responses, diminished heart function, not to mention chronic depression, insomnia, and other severe psychological effects, which might also be related to posttraumatic disorder. Even extremely low-level exposure is sufficient to cause such serious and persistent medical problems, as seen by studying the health of subway workers and first responders three to seven years after the attack in Tokyo."

4 ( +5 / -1 )

And there are thousands still alive today struggling with the terrible after-effects of the Sarin.

The authorities should have literally given the arrested members of Aum a non-lethal dose of their own "medicine". Maybe after a decade or two, their pleas for mercy would have some meaning.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Abolishing the death penalty stops the government murdering innocent people.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

No need for justice to stoop to their level of barbarism.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

all of these bleeding heart "say no to the death penalty" human rights activists need to know when to stay out.

Rather be a bleeding heart than bloodthirsty, tbh. And wow, am I a bleeding heart, you should see those dry-cleaning bills!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

UN, keep out of Japanese justices.  SOBs need neck stretching.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

The death penalty does not prevent or reduce crime. So why have it, it just makes the state as barbaric as the criminals.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@Luddite, I guess it placates the lusty vengeful types out there. Takes their minds off more pressing matters both personal and domestic. Bit like the Newgate hangings, which was a form of popular entertainment is less enlightened times.

When people are angry and need to vent, instead of focusing their ennui at politicians, class structure and other ills - it's easier to direct that pent up rage at bogeymen/monsters/public enemy number one etc.

And if it compensates for a lack of inner contentment and overwhelming feeling impotence in changing the world, the more the better for politicians who can be seen as really DOING THINGS.

When of course, they're not. They are feeding the masses with entertainment under the guise of justice.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Execute them! And put it on Pay-for-View while giving the proceeds to the victims. I would love to see Shoko Asahara squell on the way to the gallows. I saw a Japanese TV program on him a few weeks back; he never speaks and refuses to bathe so the guards have to wash him...

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Here you have a prime example why, Luditte. It's entertaining for some. Which makes me question why there are not more mental institutions worldwide...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Not sure what the basis of their claim to a re-trial is, except to continue to draw more undeserved breath, but as someone who was here when it happened, I do know they murdered in calculated, cold blood, the Sakamoto family, Kariya, those they tested sarin on in Matsumoto, and they had hope to killed untold numbers in the train attacks. Every tax yen spent of these people, repentant or not, is a waste. Move them on.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@toastedheretic

no, i’m neither lusty nor vengeful. what I am is pragmatic. society has no need for this garbage.

you like to spout platitudes about feelings of impotence or political ennui, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. i myself am a fulfilled family man who thinks about how “innocent” lives are ruined or stolen by these individuals who have no respect for real human life. it is precisely this respect for human life which guides my feelings on this issue. people who so willfully and frivolously take away this gift of life are in effect taking their own lives as well.

you forget the difference between the lives of innocents and the lives of murderers. taking the life of a killer is not the same as taking the life of someone who has not killed.

you present the wilful killing of innocents by murderers as equivalent to the reluctant killing of murderers by the state, when the latter cannot take place without the former. it is reactive whereas murder is a proactive.

it is neither entertainment nor revenge to employ the death penalty. it is the only real form of justice we have. for one thing, it happens in a secluded place far away from the public eye, and so therefore cannot be deemed a form of entertainment. for another, the victims of this heinous crime can hardly get any revenge on their killers. they’re dead.

if it was revenge, the killers would suffer the exact same fate as their victims, however you must know that it is a mitigating feature of the human condition that these “barbarians” can only die once.

speaking of which, i find it interesting that opponents of the death penalty invariably end up playing the “barbaric practice” card when they have no real point to make. ironically they always use it to address the wrong people.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Or Saudi Arabia. Who make a spectical out of it beheading people in stadiums. Must protect the petrodollar.

The UN does actually, on a regular basis. Being unaware of something doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/01/519282-un-officials-deeply-dismayed-saudi-executions-urge-commuting-all-death

Can't say I'm much of a fan of the death sentence but I will not been shedding any tears when the Aum killers make the drop.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This happens for Japan that. delays for execution.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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