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Jury Trials in Japan: Off to a Good Start, But…

By International Association of Penal Law

[First posted on Jurist 8/21/09] Japan?s first jury trial in more than 60 years apparently went off without a hitch earlier this month. The defendant, a 72 year-old man charged with murdering his 66 year-old neighbor, had already confessed to the killing, explaining that he attacked his neighbor with a knife because she knocked over some bottles of water on his property. Thus, the jury of six laypeople and three professional judges had only to decide the level of culpability and the severity of punishment, not whether the defendant was guilty of committing the act. The jury ultimately convicted the defendant of murder and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Prior to the reinstitution of jury trials in Japan in 2004 (known as ?saiban in“), there was a great deal of skepticism about adding citizen participation to the criminal justice process...continue to full post

Full post as published by AIDP Blog on August 25, 2009 (boomark / email).