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| India-Pakistan |
| Japan hangs two death row inmates |
| 2010-07-28 |
| Justice Minister Keiko Chiba - who opposes the death penalty - witnessed the executions and announced the formation of a group to review the death penalty. Opinion polls show broad support for capital punishment in Japan. The two men executed were Kazuo Shinozawa, 59, convicted of killing six women in a jewellery shop fire, and Hidenori Ogata, 33, who killed a man and a woman in 2003. Ms Chiba said that as justice minister she believed it was her duty to witness the executions in person. "It made me again think deeply about the death penalty, and I once again strongly felt that there is a need for a fundamental discussion about the death penalty," she said. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #3 Since the death penalty is very popular in Japan, there is no need for a "fundamental discussion." In the US, federal judges have taken it upon themselves to use their personal opinion to make the death penalty terribly difficult, expensive and time consuming. Except for the very rare instance, this exceeds their authority many fold from its original intent. If States want to hang, they should be able to hang. Or electrocute, or gas, or use a firing squad, or even that perversity of lethal injection. If there is any difficulty in *assigning* the death penalty at trial, it should be made by State statute. But once a trial has convicted and sentenced, only with extraordinary circumstances should the case go before a federal judge at all. If things are intolerable, the governor could show clemency. But that is it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-07-28 19:28 |
| #2 From a Johnny Cash song "And that trap and the rope, they work just fine" |
| Posted by: john frum 2010-07-28 16:25 |
| #1 A total of 107 inmates remain on death row in Japan. Prisoners are usually executed two or three at a time. Well, that's efficient. And no hot shot. The good old rope. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-07-28 14:54 |