JAPAN: DEATH PENALTY GIVEN TO MAN OVER MURDER-ROBBERY

the Tokyo High Court in Japan gave the death penalty to a 63-year-old man for robbing and murdering a couple in Saitama Prefecture, overruling a lower court decision that sentenced him to life in prison. Presiding Judge Masaki Wakahara sentenced Minoru Iwamori to death, after the prosecution appealed the Saitama District Court decision from March 2008. Iwamori allegedly killed Takeshi Tabata, 69, and his 67-year-old wife Fumiko by beating them on the head and face with a blunt instrument on February 21, 2007, and stole about 10,000 yen in cash.