This will certainly make big headlines in the UK and the English-speaking Japanese press. It's a truly remarkable verdict given the evidence about what he did, including two dead bodies, his own home videos, telephone records linking him to the deceased, etc etc.
The finger-pointing seems most appropriately aimed at a judicial system that relies almost entirely on confessions (about 98% of cases, wrung out of suspects during lengthy interrogations with no effective right to a legal defence). The effect of this is that in the rare cases in which a confession is not forthcoming, the police don't seem to have any idea how to proceed competently. I suppose we should be grateful that he got convicted of the stuff that was actually on tape.
The finger-pointing seems most appropriately aimed at a judicial system that relies almost entirely on confessions (about 98% of cases, wrung out of suspects during lengthy interrogations with no effective right to a legal defence). The effect of this is that in the rare cases in which a confession is not forthcoming, the police don't seem to have any idea how to proceed competently. I suppose we should be grateful that he got convicted of the stuff that was actually on tape.
This is the same guy who got life for killing an Australian woman.
ReplyDeleteAs a technician and an empiricist, I would like to point out that an extra life sentence would not have made an observable difference to his jail time.