A Japanese court sentenced to death Mamoru Takuma,...
A Japanese court sentenced to death Mamoru Takuma, a 39-year-old man who killed eight children after running amok with a butcher's knife in an elementary school in 2001
A Japanese court sentenced to death Mamoru Takuma, a 39-year-old man who killed eight children after running amok with a butcher's knife in an elementary school in 2001.
Presiding judge Masayuki Kawaai handed down the ruling at the Osaka District Court in the absence of the convict who was ordered to leave the court room minutes after the hearing opened as he demanded to make a final statement.
"There is no way that he can be expected to be rehabilitated," Kawaai said.
The judge ruled that Takuma was mentally fit to face punishment although he had been a psychiatric patient formerly diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia.
He was convicted of murder and attempted murder.
The judge said Takuma's motive of "revenge against his ex-wives had become that against society as a whole. Having lived a life full of regrets, he knew attacking (children) at an elite school would make a big headline and figured this would inflict vengeance against the ex-wives."
On June 8, 2001, armed with a long-bladed kitchen knife, Takuma walked into the elementary school and killed seven girls and one boy in Ikeda city in Osaka prefecture, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) west of Tokyo. Thirteen other children and two teachers were injured.
Takuma pleaded guilty when his trial opened in December 2001.
Presiding judge Masayuki Kawaai handed down the ruling at the Osaka District Court in the absence of the convict who was ordered to leave the court room minutes after the hearing opened as he demanded to make a final statement.
"There is no way that he can be expected to be rehabilitated," Kawaai said.
The judge ruled that Takuma was mentally fit to face punishment although he had been a psychiatric patient formerly diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia.
He was convicted of murder and attempted murder.
The judge said Takuma's motive of "revenge against his ex-wives had become that against society as a whole. Having lived a life full of regrets, he knew attacking (children) at an elite school would make a big headline and figured this would inflict vengeance against the ex-wives."
On June 8, 2001, armed with a long-bladed kitchen knife, Takuma walked into the elementary school and killed seven girls and one boy in Ikeda city in Osaka prefecture, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) west of Tokyo. Thirteen other children and two teachers were injured.
Takuma pleaded guilty when his trial opened in December 2001.
— SOURCES
- (Sources: www.yahoo.com, 28/08/2003)