DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD, NO OF DEATH ROW INMATES REACHES 101

the Supreme Court upheld a high court decision to hang a 57 year old man for murdering and robbing a Nagoya bar owner in 2002.
Keiki Muto, who now goes by the surname Kano, will be the 101st death-row inmate in Japan. ''The death penalty is unavoidable given the defendant's criminal history,'' Justice Chiharu Saiguchi said. Muto was previously convicted of strangling Nagoya bar owner Harue Chiba, 61, and stealing about 8,000 yen on March 14, 2002. He had also been sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1983 for strangling and robbing another female bar owner.