Japanese man sentenced to death for murders he committed as teenager

A Japanese court overturned two earlier rulings Tuesday and sentenced a man to death for a double murder he committed as a teenager, making him only the third person to be placed on death row for a crime committed as a minor since 1983.

The man, now 27, whose name is being withheld because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was found guilty of strangling and raping Yayoi Motomura, then 23, and killing her 11-month-old daughter, Yuka. The Hiroshima High Court ruled that he had posed as a utility company employee to enter their home, indicating the crime was premeditated.

Judge Yasuhide Narazaki said he found "no sufficient reasons to avoid the death sentence," public broadcaster NHK said.

In 2006, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial of the murders, committed in 1999 when the defendant was 18, because the life sentences handed down by two lower courts were too light, according to Tuesday's ruling. It also rejected the lower courts' finding that the killings were not premeditated.

Defense lawyers called the ruling unfair and said they would appeal to the Supreme Court.

Tuesday's closely monitored decision could set a precedent for juvenile crimes, customarily subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It comes amid a trend toward tougher penalties and a growing number of hangings.

Since the Supreme Court paved the way in 1983 for capital punishment for juvenile crimes, only two death sentences have been confirmed, each involving multiple murders, according to Japanese media reports.

Japan is one of the few industrialized countries that continues to impose capital punishment. It has executed 10 criminals in the past four months under Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama, an outspoken supporter of the death penalty. Only one inmate was executed in 2005.

In Tuesday's case, the Yamaguchi District Court in March 2000 had sentenced the man to life in prison for the killings, a decision supported by the Hiroshima High Court two years later before the Supreme Court ordered a retrial.

Hiroshi Motomura, the murdered woman's husband, thanked the court Tuesday for "making the right decision," and added, "The punishment gave us an opportunity to think about how we can create a safe society."