Japan’s Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings that sentenced...

Japan’s Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings that sentenced Hiromi Manaka, a 37-year-old man, to death for the murder of two of his former classmates. According to the ruling, Manaka killed the two former classmates, both of whom were 21 at that time, in 1989 in Iwai, Ibaraki Prefecture, with the intention of pretending they had stolen his car so that he could solicit money from their parents. His lawyers argued the defendant was immature in those days and that he could be rehabilitated, but Presiding Justice Chiharu Saiguchi said, ''The murders were committed in extremely cruel ways simply in order to get money. We have to impose capital punishment."