JAPAN. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR OKASHITA

Japan's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Kaoru Okashita, a 58 year old man convicted of murdering two people including an 82-year-old woman, ending his attempts to receive the life-imprisonment sentence that a district court originally handed him for the crimes. In handing down the sentence, the No. 1 Petty Bench of the Supreme Court heavily criticized Okashita over his actions. 
"It was a wicked and cold-hearted crime in which he killed his accomplice to shift all the blame to him. Although he partly offered compensation, the death penalty is unavoidable," the court said.
The initial district court ruling against Okashita said that his crime was impulsive, and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment, but an appeal at the Tokyo High Court in May 2001 branded his actions a "meticulously calculated murder," and instead sentenced him to death. Okashita, a former used car salesman, was convicted of swindling 200 million yen from an 82-year-old apartment operator by selling land without her permission, then strangling her in October 1989 so that his actions wouldn't be found out. He also shot dead a 38-year-old acquaintance who participated in the fraud, according to the ruling.