The Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence imposed...

The Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence imposed on a man who murdered two men and one woman in Tochigi Prefecture from 1990 to 1993 in the mistaken belief that the men were having affairs with his wife. The high court rejected an appeal by Hifumi Takezawa, 63, against the death sentence imposed on him by the Utsunomiya District Court. "The crimes were unusually heinous as the defendant murdered three people in a brief period of three years. The court cannot but impose capital punishment for such crimes conducted out of selfishness and simplistic thinking," Presiding Judge Shogo Takahashi said in handing down the ruling.