crime

Japan hangs 2 death-row inmates; 1st executions this year

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The death sentence is a very emotive subject, but I am not going to discus the ins and outs of them, I just would like to know why when his appeal was rejected back in March 2011 why its took, taken, so long to execute him.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Brian Wheway

Interesting point. I think it is because litigations do not finish until they withdraw. It goes from district court to high court and finally to the supreme court.  And hanging is decided when  the minister of justice sign the paper. Many of them are reluctant to sign the paper  since they think they cannot go to heaven by signing the death panaty paper.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I might add another possibility: retribution. Life on death row is no picnic. Being required to live there in miserable conditions for a decade, being woken each morning unsure if today was the day you'd swing, must be terrifying.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Reiwa #s 1 and 2.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

potential introduction of lifetime imprisonment without parole.

I'am not a supporter of this idea. If you intend to waste resources,time and manpower taking care of them for the rest of their lives, you might as well just end them. People might thing it's gonna be a nice retirement home and purposely commit crimes to get imprison. Which already happen a lot these days

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

One morning, a  prison officer visited a prison cell of Chizuo Matsumoto of Aum after he  finished his breakfast and told him, "Matsumoto Chizuo-kun." "Sorry to inform you but the day came we say goodby to you."  Matsumoto hearing it trembled for a while and said "chikisho" (goddamn), reportedly.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Being dangled from the neck, not really something that says modern 2019. But apparently for Japan it's a step forward from gutting oneself and having your friend lop your head off little steps.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Which method of execution is more humane, hanging or lethal injection?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Instead of executing prisoners who committed horrendous crimes just sentence them to life in prison on a very strict regime without any chance on early release.

This will be a much better deterrent than sudden death which most of them were looking for anyway.

Furthermore this leaves open the ability to acquit a person who might have been imprisoned unjustly, it wouldn't be the first time a prisoner was executed who later proved to be completely innocent.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Anyone who has studied history, knows that nothing has ever worked as a "deterrent" against homicide because primates are homicidal. Executions and draconian sanctions just create a zero-sum game since the more a government punishes with executions, the more killings will be end up on the government side of the equation resulting in despotic regimes ruling over enslaved populations by means of terror and violence. NO THANK YOU!

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Anyone who has studied history, knows that nothing has ever worked as a "deterrent" against homicide because primates are homicidal

I have studied history and I can tell you for a fact that some people will think twice before committing an horrendous crime if they know they face life in prison on a hard regime.

Not all crimes are committed in the heat of the moment in fact most are planned well beforehand.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Anyone who has studied history, knows that nothing has ever worked as a "deterrent" against homicide because primates are homicidal. Executions and draconian sanctions just create a zero-sum game since the more a government punishes with executions, the more killings will be end up on the government side of the equation resulting in despotic regimes ruling over enslaved populations by means of terror and violence. NO THANK YOU!

5 innocent women were murdered and your heart pours out for the killers. Where is your sympathy for them and their families who have to live with this the rest of their lives?

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Dude, aren't murderers victims, too? Victims of their uncontrollable impulses and the circumstances of their lives and the cards their genes and society dealt them? The 5 innocent women whom I have never met can only arouse my sympathy in an abstract way, and this also applies to the tens of MILLIONS of victims of government terror and violence during my lifetime, from the Vietnam War to Iraq and now Yemen; this horrendous record of inhumanity that, curiously, hardly ever seems to elicit much sympathy from the majority of people so preoccupied with their own personal lives that they, like the Germans in WW2, pretend not to see or know about the crimes perpetrated in their name. The demand for justice for these blood crimes is an inaudible cry uttered only by a minority with afflicted consciences, but ignored or excused by the media on bended knee to the guilty ones and acquiescing in their impunity. But, believe me, I do feel for ALL victims of violence (been one myself).

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Dude, aren't murderers victims, too?

No they are most certainly not.

I myself can not 100% guarantee that due to extraordinary circumstances I will never commit a murder but even in that case I can never be considered a victim.

We always have a choice no matter how hard that choice may be.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

This will be a much better deterrent than sudden death which most of them were looking for anyway.

Any proof of this?

Many cases of people in US spending decades trying to avoid the death penalty. Also, many make a plea bargain for life in prison without parole vs being sentenced to death.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Any proof of this?

Many cases of people in US

We are specifically talking about the death penalty in Japan and how many articles did we not read on this very site of people committing an atrocity in the hopes of being killed on the scene or getting the death penalty afterwards ?

For some people the death penalty is a relieve, rotting away in jail for the rest of their life is not.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I'm all for the death penalty but damn Japan. Hanging people? Move up to the guillotine, shoot them in the head or, God forbid, leathal injection. Modernize a bit. Taking a life should be done with some mercy and respect.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

"Do onto others what you will others do onto you". The golden rule is indisputable, I support death sentence.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Guillotine is too French, firing squad screams dictatorship, lethal injection...maybe but there are issues with procurement and pain.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

We always have a choice no matter how hard that choice may be.

The above would be true, IF humans had free will, but, unfortunately, the findings of scientific research now seem to suggest the opposite, leading researchers to the pessimistic conclusion that "free will" is largely illusory, and that an individual's "choices" are severely circumscribed. Needless to say, the thinking of the general public and that of their "chosen" representatives will need many more years to catch up to the reality that science is unveiling. When future societies eventually come to accept the real limits of our freedom to act, there will be a seismic shift in people's attitudes to crime and punishment.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

The above would be true, IF humans had free will, but, unfortunately, the findings of scientific research now seem to suggest the opposite, leading researchers to the pessimistic conclusion that "free will" is largely illusory, and that an individual's "choices" are severely circumscribed.

This looks to me as nothing more than a controversial hypothese by some researchers, let's see some actual universally acclaimed proof that people have no free will.

Until that happens this is nothing more then unfounded apologetic rhetoric to defend people committing crimes.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I for one don't look to the death penalty as deterrence, but merely as what one deserves when they cross the line and take someone else's life. Period.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Dude, aren't murderers victims, too?

What a load of crap. Tell the families of the women that were murdered that the men who took the lives of their loved ones are victims too. See how that goes over.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

What a load of crap. Tell the families of the women that were murdered that the men who took the lives of their loved ones are victims too.

And what do we tell the families of those found later to have been innocent after being executed?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

And what do we tell the families of those found later to have been innocent after being executed?

Since that has nothing to do with what I said, tell them whatever you want. I'm not going to get into wrongful convictions. I was responding to the notion that murderers are victims of society.

Dude, aren't murderers victims, too? Victims of their uncontrollable impulses and the circumstances of their lives and the cards their genes and society dealt them?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

that has nothing to do with what I said

Sure it does. If there is a death penalty, due to human fallibility, innocents will sometimes be executed. You cannot bury your head in the sand about this if your support executions. Innocents being executed is a fact of the death penalty.

So when we talk about victims, we also have to consider these victims. I can respect someone who says 'I support the death penalty, even understanding that innocents will be executed', even if I personally don't feel that the cost is worth the benefit. But it's harder to respect it if someone will not even acknowledge the cost of the action they promote, as they are distancing themselves from the moral consequences of their choices.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Our taxes don't need to keep animals like them alive

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

“To lead a country, it means killing people.”

Thus spake Tucker Carlson (the truth for once). So who has any sympathy for these millions of victims of violence? No matter, all "good people" can still sleep the sleep of the righteous , yet citizens are certainly more responsible for killings like (cough) "collateral damage" repeatedly perpetrated by their governments than they are for killings by individuals unknown to them.

Human violence is a very complex phenomenon and the "hang 'em high" crowd are clearly unwilling to give this perennial problem the deep thought it deserves, thus they just shrug their shoulders over innocent people who have been executed.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Our taxes don't need to keep animals like them alive

And what about those executed who aren't animals - the innocents. Are taxes worth keeping innocent people alive?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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