JAPAN DEATH PENALTY FINALIZED FOR MAN WHO MURDERED PAIR OF SISTERS

the death sentence of a 23-year-old man who killed two sisters in Osaka, Japan, in 2005 was finalized after he withdrew his appeal, his lawyers said. Yukio Yamaji was accused of stabbing to death Asuka Uehara, 27, and her sister Chihiro, 19, in their apartment in Osaka, Japan, stealing 5,000 yen and torching the premises on Nov. 17, 2005. While his lawyers appealed the death sentence handed down by the Osaka District Court in December 2006, arguing that their client was mentally incompetent at the time of the crime, Yamaji himself was reluctant to do so and the appeal was withdrawn, they said.