Japanese Online Murderer sentenced to death

Subject: Japanese Online Murderer sentenced to death 14/4/2007, 20:03

This very weird news story from Japan is only a few weeks old, but also generally - what do you people think of death penalty? Do you think its inhuman and should be banned forever or justified in some extreme cases?

• Source Link: http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Japanese-suicide-website-murderer-sentenced-to-death/2007/03/28/1174761554382.html

Quote :: Japanese suicide website murderer sentenced to death
A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced to death a man who killed three people after making suicide pacts with them on the Internet.

The Osaka District Court sentenced Hiroshi Maeue, 38, to the gallows for suffocating to death the three and filming the killings.

"The crime was cruel, harsh and outrageous," presiding Judge Kazuo Mizushima said in court, according to Jiji Press.

"This was a crime aimed at fulfilling the accused's sexual desire," Mizushima said. "It is difficult for him to change these unusual characteristics. We cannot help but give the extreme penalty."

The unemployed Maeue, who pleaded guilty, bowed deeply to the judge when he asked him to pray for the souls of his victims, Jiji said.

The court said that Maeue got to know the victims through Japan's widely publicised phenomenon of suicide websites.

In one case, he met a 25-year-old woman online and proposed that they kill themselves together. But when they entered the car for the suicide in February 2005, he bound her with ropes and choked her to death, the court said.

The accused was also convicted of killing a 21-year-old college student and a 14-year-old junior high school student in similar plots. He demanded a ransom for the high school student's return after killing him.

A court-ordered examination found that Maeue did not have any mental disorder and that he was mentally competent.

Japan has witnessed a growing number of Internet suicide pacts arranged among strangers who die together near peaceful sites such as mountains, often poisoning themselves with carbon monoxide using charcoal burners.