The Fukushima District Court, Japan, sentenced Kiyoshi...

The Fukushima District Court, Japan, sentenced Kiyoshi Ishii, a 63-year-old man, to death for setting a house on fire and killing a couple inside after quarreling with them on June 6, 2000. According to the ruling, Ishii torched the house in the town of Ishikawa, using gasoline, which burned Shigeyoshi Mimori, 74, and his wife Matsue, 69, to death. Ishii and the Mimoris, who were farmers, had disputed over the disposal of garbage collected by Ishii, Presiding Judge Hiroshi Osawa said in the ruling. Osawa judged the crime as "deliberate" and said that Ishii had been "extremely sly as he has often changed his pleas." Prosecutors cited statements made during investigations by a woman living with Ishii at the time of the incident, in which she said the defendant told her he had set the fire after quarreling with the couple.