JAPAN. DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD FOR MAN CONVICTED OF TWO MURDERS

Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Masuo Yamaguchi, convicted of two murders and robbery in 1994 and 1995 in Gifu and Mie prefectures.
The Second Petty Bench turned down an appeal from Yamaguchi, 56, against a high court decision that overturned his life prison term and sent him to death row, finalizing the sentence.
Isao Imai, the presiding justice on the five-justice panel, said, "the crimes were premeditated, cruel, hard-boiled and brutal, and there is no room for leniency."
Yamaguchi, in conspiracy with an accomplice, stole 1 million yen in cash from the home of an antique dealer in the town of Yaotsu, Gifu Prefecture, in March 1994. In April that year, the two murdered a member of their theft ring in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, and dumped his body into a reservoir, the Nagoya High Court said in June 2001.
The two men were also convicted of murdering another antique dealer in Yokkaichi in March 1995, stealing 4.3 million yen in cash, and dumping his body into the same reservoir. The accomplice, who had been sentenced to death at the Nagoya High Court, died before the Supreme Court could rule on his appeal.