The Tokyo District Court sentence to death Yoshio Ando,...

The Tokyo District Court sentence to death Yoshio Ando, a homeless man, for murdering three other homeless men in Tokyo in 1999.
"It is difficult to expect to rehabilitate him and is unavoidable to hand down the death penalty even after considerable consideration," Presiding Judge Yujiro Nakatani said in handing down the sentence.
The judge rejected the defence lawyer's claim that Ando, 56, could not be held accountable for his actions because he was under the influence of amphetamines at the time of the killings, saying Ando was "fully responsible" for the crimes.
According to the ruling, Ando stabbed a 60-year-old man to death following an argument with him in September 1999 along the banks of the Arakawa River in Edogawa Ward.
Ando then killed two other homeless men the same day disposing of the three bodies by throwing them in the river.