The death sentence of Kazumi Taga, a 53 year old Japanese...

The death sentence of Kazumi Taga, a 53 year old Japanese man, was reduced to life in prison through a plea bargain after he admitted to killing his wife and daughter. Taga had been charged with the first-degree murder of his wife Yuriko, 38, and Megumi, 4, in September 2000 and then dumping their bodies into a Los Angeles harbour. The case drew media attention as no Japanese national has died by capital punishment in the United States since it reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Prosecutors sought death for Taga at the Los Angeles Superior Court in May 2002, but reached a plea bargain after he admitted to murdering the two, a charge he had previously denied. Taga, a native of Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, had admitted to tying weights to the bodies of his wife and daughter to sink them in the sea, but said they committed suicide by poisoning themselves.