REMEMBER THE VICTIMS OF THE 1995 SARIN ATTACK ON THE TOKYO SUBWAY (20 MARCH 1995) [PRO DEATH PENALTY QUOTES OF THE WEEK ~ SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2013 TO SATURDAY 23 MARCH 2013]

            On this date, 20 March 1995, there was a Sarin Gas Attack on the Tokyo Subway. In loving memory of the 13 victims, I will post four quotes from two Japanese judges on their opinions on sentencing two of the Aum Shinrikyo  perpetrators to death. 

Niro Shimada (島田 仁郎),

QUOTE 1: On 7 April 2005 - Presiding Justice Niro Shimada rejected Kazuaki Okazaki's appeal, saying: "The crimes were organized, carefully planned, ruthless and brutal. The defendant's criminal responsibility is extremely serious due to his aggressive participation in the killing of the people as a senior member of the cult."

QUOTE 2: "Even though he surrendered to police and he prayed for the souls of the victims, his criminal responsibility is extremely serious," Judge Niro Shimada said of Okazaki. "The death sentence cannot be helped."

AUTHOR: Niro Shimada (島田 仁郎, Shimada Nirō, born November 22, 1938) was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan. Born in Tokyo, he attended the University of Tokyo, graduating with an LL.B. and passing the bar examination in 1962. He was appointed as an assistant judge in 1964 and rotated through the criminal divisions of the Tokyo and Nagoya District Courts and of the Supreme Court. He obtained an MPhil from the University of London in 1968. He served as on the Osaka District Court (1974-77), as a lecturer at the Legal Research and Training Institute (1977-81), on the Tokyo District Court (1981-82; 1986-89), in the criminal division of the Supreme Court (1983-86; 1989-94), as chief judge of the Utsunomiya District Court (1994-96), as chief judge of the Urawa District Court (1996-98), as head of the Legal Research and Training Institute (1999-2001), as chief judge of the Sendai High Court (2001-02) and as chief judge of the Osaka High Court (2002). He was appointed to the Supreme Court on November 7, 2002 and became Chief Justice on October 16, 2006. Hironobu Takesaki replaced Niro Shimada when November 21, 2008, the date of Shimada's mandatory retirement, came.

Seishi Kanetsuki (金築 誠志)

 

QUOTE 3: Monday 21 November 2011 - The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by Seiichi Endo, a former senior member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult who was sentenced to death by lower courts for his involvement in four cases, some involving murder, essentially bringing to an end a series of Aum-related trials that lasted more than 16 years.

Endo, a 51-year-old former veterinarian and virologist, is set to become the 13th member of the cult to have a death sentence finalized.

Endo was given the death penalty by lower courts for conspiring with Aum founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and playing a central role in the sarin nerve gas attacks in Nagano Prefecture in 1994 and on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.

"The crimes were committed in an organized and systematic manner, to defend the cult and as a challenge to a law-abiding nation," presiding Justice Seishi Kanetsuki of the Supreme Court's No. 1 Petty Bench said in the ruling. 

"They were extremely antisocial and showed outrageous disregard for human life. Although he himself was not a perpetrator of the crimes, the criminal responsibility of the defendant, who misused his scientific knowledge in connection with the crimes, was extremely serious," the ruling said.

AUTHOR: Seishi Kanetsuki (金築 誠志, Kanetsuki Seishi^?, born April 1, 1945) is a member of the Supreme Court of Japan.