The Osaka District Court sentenced Susumu Nakayama...

The Osaka District Court sentenced Susumu Nakayama a 53-year-old murderer to death for fatally stabbing Takemitsu Kikugawa, 37, his lover Minako Kobuchi, 40, a restaurant employee, on a street in Toyonaka in the Osaka prefecture, on February 19, 1998 with a kitchen knife and a hand-made spear.
Nakayama, who was dating Kikugawa's wife at the time, decided to kill Kikugawa after becoming enraged when the Kikugawas' divorce proceedings became deadlocked, the ruling said.
In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Makoto Himuro said, "There is no room for leniency concerning such selfish reasons to kill someone out of one-sided hatred. It is an appallingly brutal crime, which was carefully planned and conducted with a firm intention to kill. The court has no choice but to give him a death sentence as he shows no remorse at all," the judge said.
Prosecutors had demanded a death sentence, saying the crime was brutal and outrageous, and that it is impossible to reform Nakayama as he shows no remorse.
Nakayama's lawyers said their client did not have the intent to kill and could only be accused of committing bodily injury resulting in death. Nakayama plans to appeal to a higher court, they added.
Nakayama had also been sentenced to death in a robbery-murder case in 1970 by the Kochi District Court, but the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment by the Takamatsu High Court in 1973.
He served his term and was released on parole in 1991.