Death Row Moves Forward

Second Petty Bench of Supreme Court dismissed on Friday an appeal of former follower of a cult group Aum Shinrikyo, Katsuya Takahashi, on the case of murder in Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack in 1995. Court decision on him, imprisonment for life, was fixed. The decision of final court put a period on a series of trials related to the serious crime of Aum Shinrikyo. Losing cause for moratorium, it is likely that execution of other Aum prisoners who had been sentenced death penalty, including the founder Shoko Asahara, will be started.

Takahashi was arrested in 2012 after 17 years of hiding himself. He is suspected to have been involved in not only Subway Sarin Attack, but VX gas assault on a manager of parking, kidnapping and murder of an officer of notary public’s office and explosion in Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. Although the defendant argued that he, as a driver for the offenders, had not known about their plan to disseminate sarin in subway stations, the court found that Takahashi had recognized the crime, because he had been injected antidote after the attack.

Ministry of Justice is going to consider execution of 13 convicts on death row. They were sentenced death penalty in between 2005 and 2011. While Code of Criminal Procedure determines that death penalty has to be executed within 6 months from final decision of the court, there is a moratorium period before the decision on accomplice is fixed. The decision of Supreme Court on Takahashi’s case marked the end of the moratorium period.

The average time between final court decision and execution was 5 years and 2 months in the latest decade. At least 6 years have passed since each of 13 criminals received final decision of death penalty. Some criminals filed appeals for retrial. Asahara has made it for four times, arguing that the sarin attack was made by his disciples. But there is a tendency that execution has been made even with appeal for retrial. Officers of Ministry of Justice indicated that execution of Asahara would be done in a reasonable condition.

Spouse of a victim in the subway sarin attack, Shizue Takahashi, told that she was amazed with the length of time for court decision in the case, which reminded her of scary nature of Aum Shinrikyo. While it had no relationship with Islamic extremism, Aum Shinrikyo committed serious terrorism against Japanese government, based on cult principles. It is likely that judicial system of Japan has not ready for organized terrorism.