JAPAN. HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR 60-YR-OLD MAN FOR MURDER

the Sapporo High Court, Japan, upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a 60-year-old man to death for killing a couple in Hokkaido in 1988. According to the ruling, Yuji Kubota, then an insurance salesman, killed Katsuji Yada, 61, and his wife Kazue, 56, on October 21, 1988 to cover up his unlawful solicitation. Kubota stabbed them in their necks and they died from loss of blood.
''The defendant shows no remorse or regret,'' said Presiding Judge Kotaro Nagashima. ''The acts were malicious and cruel, and are subject to grave criminal responsibility,'' he said, rejecting Kubota's appeal.
Kubota immediately appealed to the Supreme Court.
He initially admitted to the charges but later denied them during proceedings at the Kushiro District Court, claiming his blood left at the crime scene had been ''spilled there by someone.'' Nagashima rejected the claim once again, saying it was impossible. Kubota fled Hokkaido in 1989 after faking suicide by dumping his car in the sea at Abashiri. He had since been traveling on foot until his arrest in Yokohama in December 2002.