Masumi Hayashi, given the death sentence for murdering...

Masumi Hayashi, given the death sentence for murdering four people with poisoned curry in 1998 in Wakayama, said she decided to end her silence in court because she had never expected to face such a sentence.
''I had been confident that I would not face the death penalty when there was no firm evidence,'' Hayashi, 43, told the Osaka High Court in response to a question by her defense counsel.
''If I am going to be executed, I thought I should leave with what I wanted to say on record,'' she said in tears.
The former insurance saleswoman broke more than five years of silence at the high court in June to plead not guilty to the charges.
The Wakayama District Court sentenced her to death in December 2002, finding her guilty of killing four people and poisoning 63 others by putting arsenic in a curry stew at a community gathering on July 25, 1998. The lower court concluded that the arsenic found in the curry pot was identical to arsenic powder found in Hayashi's home and other places where she had been.