JAPAN: WOMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING 3 MEN

A 37-year-old woman was sentenced to death in Japan for killing three men in a high-profile multiple murder case, despite her claim of innocence in a lay judge trial at the Saitama District Court.
In handing down the sentence for Kanae Kijima, who was charged with killing three male friends in 2009 and disguising their deaths as suicides from carbon monoxide poisoning, Presiding Judge Kazuyuki Okuma said, "The defendant repeatedly committed quite serious crimes that claimed the lives of three people."
"There is no room for leniency as the defendant committed the crimes for selfish purposes," Okuma said. "She reiterated irrational excuses in court and did not show any remorse."
The three victims were Takao Terada, 53, and Kenzo Ando, 80, who were both found dead at their homes in suburban Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture, and Yoshiyuki Oide, 41, who was found dead in a rented car in Saitama Prefecture.
Demanding capital punishment, prosecutors said she dated them to gain money to live in luxury and killed them to prevent them from seeking repayment.
They pointed out that all three men died of carbon monoxide poisoning, and claimed that Kijima prepared the coal briquettes and stoves -- often used in suicides through such poisoning -- herself and was meeting with them until just before their deaths.
Accepting the prosecutors' argument, Presiding Judge Okuma said, "The defendant committed the crimes so she could maintain an embellished life."
Her defense counsel argued, meanwhile, that the three had either committed suicide after arguing with her over breaking up or had died by accident. "Evidence presented by the prosecutors does not sufficiently prove that the defendant murdered the three men," the defense side said.
The citizen judges served for 100 days, the longest-ever period since the introduction of the lay judge system in 2009, and faced a difficult judgment, given only circumstantial evidences.