District and high courts across Japan sentenced a record...

District and high courts across Japan sentenced a record 30 defendants to death in 2003, while 56 death-row inmates did not appeal their sentences or lost appeals as of December 29, according to Kyodo News calculations based on court data.
The figures reflect a trend of imposing severe sentences amid an increasing number of heinous crimes. Meanwhile, a suprapartisan group of lawmakers were calling for the abolishment of executions and for the introduction of life imprisonment without parole in place of the death penalty.
High courts sentenced 17 people to death in 2003, the most in 10 years, while district courts handed down death penalties on 13 people - the third highest figure after the record high of 18 last year and 14 in 2000. The Supreme Court did not pass any judgments upholding death sentences in 2003.
Only one prisoner was executed in 2003, the lowest number in 10 years. The execution took place in September at Osaka Detention Center.
The lawmakers' group compiled a bill in June calling for the replacement of the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole. The group planned to submit the bill to parliament in 2004. Among the concerns motivating them, the lawmakers cite the possibility of false accusations and the fact that over half of UN member states have abolished capital punishment.
Submission of the bill to parliament during 2003 was postponed due to opposition from many lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party."In the trend of giving harsh punishments out of consideration for the victims, the hurdle for choosing the death penalty is getting lower," House of Representatives member Ikuo Yamahana of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan said. "I would like to submit the bill to parliament and reduce the number of death sentences even if only by a fraction."
Among those who got death sentences in 2003 were four members of the AUM Shinrikyo cult over the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 and other crimes