the Chiba District Court, Japan, sentenced Koji Takao

the Chiba District Court, Japan, sentenced Koji Takao, a 41-year-old man, to death for starting a fire at a house in Chiba Prefecture that killed a family of four. Takao, was found guilty of setting fire to newspapers at the entrance of the house of Ryujiro Nezu, 56, in Tateyama on December 18, 2003.
Nezu, his wife Hatsue, 52, their elder son Eigo, 27, and their younger son Shogo, 25, died in the fire. The fire also burned down six other houses. Takao also set fire to four other locations in Tateyama including a bar, according to the ruling.
Takao, a construction worker, allegedly began torching garbage and other items around 1997 as a result of stress over personal relationships at his workplace and overdue tax and pension payments.
"It was a malicious crime, resulting from self-indulgence of the defendant who did not care about taking other people's lives in order to relieve his stress," Presiding Judge Yasuyuki Tsuchiya said. Defense attorneys had denied Takao intended to kill.
The court ruled that the defendant had known that the people sleeping in the house could die if he set it on fire.