Saitama Court Sentences Kanae Kijima to Death for Murdering Three Men She Met Through Online Dating Sites
The 100-day lay-judge trial rested on circumstantial evidence. It was the first death sentence for a woman under Japan's lay-judge system.
Published
Three men Kanae Kijima met through online dating sites died in 2009. On April 13, 2012, the Saitama District Court sentenced her to death for their murders.
Kijima, 37, was convicted of murdering Takao Terada, 53, in Tokyo in January 2009; Kenzo Ando, 80, in Chiba Prefecture in May 2009; and Yoshiyuki Oide, 41, in Saitama Prefecture in August 2009. The court heard that she wanted to stop the men from demanding back money she had taken from them. There was no direct evidence tying her to the killings, and the prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence, including her purchases of sleeping pills and charcoal briquettes and the fact that she had met each man shortly before he died. Her defense said two of the men had taken their own lives. She was also convicted of seven lesser crimes, including fraud and theft.
The lay-judge trial lasted 100 days, the longest under Japan's lay-judge system, with 36 hearings from the first on January 10 and about 60 witnesses. It was the 14th death sentence handed down in a lay-judge trial and the first for a female defendant. More than 1,300 people lined up for the 49 public seats. Kijima appealed the same day.
AFP reported that prosecutors won the case without the direct evidence Japanese courts often rely on, while one of the lay judges said that alongside the circumstantial evidence there was also some physical evidence.
Sources
- 'Black widow' sentenced to death in Japan, Taipei Times (AFP)
- 裁判員「だんだんつらく」 木嶋被告死刑判決で (Lay judges: "it gradually became hard," after the Kijima death sentence), Nikkei
Related News
- March 12, 2014: Tokyo High Court Upholds Kanae Kijima's Death Sentence for Killing Three Men She Met Through Marriage Websites