HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH FOR DOG BREEDER FOR KILLING 4 PEOPLE

the Tokyo High Court upheld a March 2001 ruling by the Urawa District Court sentencing to death Gen Sekine, 63, and his former wife Hiroko Kazama, 48, for murdering four people in 1993 following disputes over the sale of dogs.
According to the lower court ruling, Sekine, conspiring with Kazama, fatally poisoned three people, including Akio Kawasaki, 39, by using a capsule containing strychnine nitrate, a drug used to put down dogs, between April and July in 1993 after money problems over the sale of dogs. Sekine also killed housewife Mitsue Sekiguchi, 54, with whom he was involved in a separate dispute over a sale, in August 1993, the ruling said.