STORY: "Death Row inmates sue over Japan;s brief notice of execution," by Reporter Justin McCurry, published by The Guardian on November 5, 2021."
SUB-HEADING: "Lawyer for prisoners criticizes 'inhumane' practice of giving only a few hours notice of hanging.
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The prisoners claim that the short notice given to death row inmates before they are led to the gallows is illegal since it does not give condemned men and women enough time to object. “Death row prisoners live in fear every morning that that day will be their last. It’s extremely inhumane,” their lawyer, Yutaka Ueda, said. “Japan is really behind the international community on this.” The practice has long been criticised by international human rights organisations for the mental anguish it causes. Japan and the US are the only industrialised democracies that still carry out executions. In a 2009 report, Amnesty International accused Japan of subjecting death row inmates to “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, including the short time prisoners are given to prepare themselves for their execution and the many years they spend in solitary confinement."
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GIST: Two death row inmates in Japan are suing the government, claiming that the practice of not informing inmates of the time of their execution until only hours before they are hanged is “inhumane”.
In what is believed to be the first legal challenge of its kind, the prisoners have demanded changes to the procedure and ¥22m (£143,000) in compensation, in a suit filed with a district court in Osaka.
The prisoners claim that the short notice given to death row inmates before they are led to the gallows is illegal since it does not give condemned men and women enough time to object.
“Death row prisoners live in fear every morning that that day will be their last. It’s extremely inhumane,” their lawyer, Yutaka Ueda, said. “Japan is really behind the international community on this.”
The practice has long been criticised by international human rights organisations for the mental anguish it causes. Japan and the US are the only industrialised democracies that still carry out executions.
In a 2009 report, Amnesty International accused Japan of subjecting death row inmates to “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, including the short time prisoners are given to prepare themselves for their execution and the many years they spend in solitary confinement.
It has also criticised Japan for executing or placing mentally ill and intellectually challenged prisoners in solitary confinement.
Ueda said there was no legal requirement for inmates to be informed so close to their execution, adding that the practice was a violation of the country’s criminal code.
“The central government has said this is meant to keep prisoners from suffering before their execution, but that’s no explanation and a big problem, and we really need to see how they respond to the suit,” he said.
“Overseas, prisoners are given time to contemplate the end of their lives and mentally prepare. It’s as if Japan is trying as hard as possible not to let anybody know.”
A spokesperson at the justice ministry declined to comment on the case, or on how the death penalty is carried out.
The death penalty in Japan is usually imposed in cases that involve multiple murders. Opinion polls show high levels of public support for capital punishment, particularly in the aftermath of high-profile crimes such as the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by members of a doomsday cult.
The justice ministry said 112 people were on death row in Japan, although no executions were carried out in Japan last year – the first year in which none had taken place since 2011 – and no one has been put to death so far this year.
Doubts about the safety of convictions grew in 2014, when Iwao Hakamada was released after spending more than 45 years on death row for murder. A court ordered a retrial amid claims that police investigators fabricated evidence against him.
Hakamada, a former professional boxer, had been sentenced to hang in 1968 for the murders two years earlier of a company president, his wife and their two children."
The entire story can be read at:
japan-death-row-inmates-sue-over-same-day-notification-of-execution-report
