TOP COURT REJECTS DEATH PENALTY APPEAL BY EX-YAKUZA CONVICTED OF DOUBLE MURDER

Presiding Justice Osamu Tsuno of the Supreme Court of Japan dismissed the appeal of Ryoji Goto, 49, a former yakuza leader sentenced to death for murdering two people and injuring three others. The ruling means the death penalties handed down against Goto in earlier court rulings will become fixed. Goto is also facing a separate trial in the Mito District Court for a murder he confessed to after launching his Supreme Court appeal. In earlier district and high court rulings, Goto was convicted of throwing a man into a river in July 2000, killing him, and causing another person to die the following month though a lethal injection of stimulants. After filing a Supreme Court appeal in 2005, Goto told Ibaraki Prefectural Police that he was involved in three other murders. Police formed a case against him for one of them, in which he is accused of killing a 67 year old man to claim an insurance payout.