JAPAN. CONVICTED QUADRUPLE KILLER DEALT DEATH PENALTY

Shojiro Nishimoto, a jobless man under indictment on charges of murdering four people in Nagano and Aichi prefectures in 2004, was handed the death penalty. The Nagano District Court ordered that Nishimoto, 29, of no fixed address, be hanged for robbery-murder, just as prosecutors had demanded.
Nishimoto stabbed to death taxi driver Yasuo Minato, 59, in his cab parked in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, in January 2004, according to the ruling. He was also convicted of murdering two elderly people in Iida and Takamori in Nagano Prefecture, in April and August of the same year, and another in Takamori in September. In all these cases, he stole money from his victims.
He was arrested in later September 2004 for trespassing in Iida, and admitted to the murders during questioning.
During his trial, Nishimoto told the court that he had no choice but to kill people in order to steal money from them. "To be sure of getting money, it was easier for me to rob and kill people than to steal money and let the victims live. I had no choice but to do so in order to survive."
Prosecutors had demanded that Nishimoto be hanged saying, "There is no room for leniency and it's impossible to rehabilitate him."
His defense counsel had asked for leniency. "What the defendant should do is to spend the rest of his life reflecting on and atoning for his crime."