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Japan executes 4 despite pressure to drop death penalty

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Japan's Ministry of Justice announced Thursday that four death row inmates were executed, despite international pressure to end the practice. The executions are the country's first of 2009. Last year, the Ministry of Justice carried out the execution of 15 prisoners, including three inmates in June, as well as an additional two inmates in October. Thursday's four executions brings to 19 the number of executions in Japan since Minister of Justice Kunio Hatoyama took office in August 2007. In recent years, Japan has experienced a sharp upswing in both violent crime and the perceived risk of violent crime, factors used as justification for increasing the use of capital punishment. One of the last developed nations to still use the death penalty, Japan has endured international criticism for the practice since it ended an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment in 1993. In November 2008, the UN Human Rights Committee urged Japan to take steps to abolish the death penalty. Amnesty International issued a statement urging Japan to stop executions after the hanging of four men in April. In February, a group of parliamentarians proposed a four-year moratorium on the practice. In August 2007, Japan's national bar association called for a moratorium on the death penalty until new safeguards are enacted to prevent wrongful executions.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 29, 2009 (boomark / email).