JAPAN. TOP COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLER OF 4 WOMEN

Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence given by a lower court to Masakatsu Nishikawa, a man who murdered four female bar managers in western Japan in less than a month in 1991.
The decision made the death sentence final for Nishikawa, 49, who was convicted of murder and robbery. Nishikawa murdered the women between December 13 and 28 in 1991 by strangling or stabbing them at the bars they managed. He also robbed a female "rakugo" comic storyteller in January 1992 and attempted to murder her. During the hearings, Nishikawa pleaded guilty to killing Masaki but claimed he should not be criminally liable because he had drunken a large quantity of alcohol, which made him feeble-minded. He maintained was not guilty of the three other murders.