Death row inmates [in Japan] do not know until the morning of their last day that their number is up. It could be next week, next month, or years away. But for four, the gallows suddenly came Monday.The condemned, and their next of kin, are purposely kept in the dark about their fate by the government until the time to hang arrives. As one Justice Ministry official put it, this is to lessen the mental torture of an inmate waiting to die, but critics have long denounced this logic as the exact opposite of the torturous truth.
The four hanged Monday were no exception, and now 94 others sit on death rows nationwide, never knowing when the knock on the door will come.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
No Man [in Japan] Knows ... the Hour ...
Setsuko Kamiya, Day of Hanging Comes without Warning, Japan Times (Dec. 26, 2006):
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About week ago, Russian Duma (parliament) did not ratify certain protocol of the European Court of Justice (that court has some amount of jurisdiction over certain issues pertaining to Russian subjects) - on the grounds that, in Duma's opinion, interpretation of the term "significant" in Russia and in EU can differ. ECJ takes only cases where person's rights have been "significantly violated". Russian parlamentaries were afraid that European meaning of "significant violation" is TOO NARROW, the Russian law being better in this respect... President Putin recommended the protocol to be ratified, though.
Waiting time can be in years, says the article... The policy allows, at least theoretically, an infinite waiting periond (or at least long enough for the person to die of a natural cause) - which can mean a long torture (as noted by opponents of the policy) or factual non-implementation of the sentence. Deliberate, unlimited waiting comes very handy to a government that may view some cases inconvenient (either in investigation, decision or implementation stages).
Dear pp,
Yes, the conviction of at least one of the four had become final 20 years before the Christmas Day execution. Of course, such delays alo happen in the United States, mainly because of legal challenges to the sentence or the underlying conviction.
I think (true) stories about dead men waiting are horrifying, not mainly because one way of waiting for the executioner is demonstrably much worse than another, but mainly because such accounts show us just how brutal the process of state-sanctioned execution is. (Note: I dislike the death penalty, but I do wish to keep it in reserve for mass murderers such as Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and, yes, Saddam Hussein.)
"Math in the Courtroom" -
Mathematics professor's recollections on serving on jury (discusses evidence and visuals)..
http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=192191&tstart=45
Dear pp,
Yes, the lawyers in the DUI case bungled the math a bit. (It was some math of this kind that is at the base of one of my criticisms of the defense strategy in a vehicular manslaughter case called State of New Jersey v. Radziwil. See my paper http://tillers.net/radziwil.pdf & see same paper & story in R. Lempert, ed. EVIDENCE STORIES (Foundation Press 2006).) But one point about the case understandably eluded the mathematics professor: The probable reason the Washington State prosecutor did not try to make hay out of the 0.7% blood alcohol level reading is that Washington State's DUI statute probably provides that a presumption of intoxication arises only if the blood alcohol level reading exceeeds 0.8%. If so, it is the law rather than the prosecutor that should be accused of stupidity. (A peripheral point: The math professor ignores the point that for some period of time after alcohol is consumed the blood alcohol level of the drinker rises rather than falls; it takes a bit of time for the alcohol to get into the bloodstream of a drinker.) Several other points: (i) the prosecutor was probably green; a DUI case is normally viewed as a minor case and inexperienced prosecutors usually handle them; but (ii) one clear problem with the use of science in the courtroom is the scientific ineptitude of trial lawyers; but (iv) the lawyers trying the Washington DUI case -- a case leading to the death of a cow? -- probably devoted little time to the preparation of the case because they probably viewed the case as trivial -- in comparison with murder, robbery, etc.
I would be more interested to know what appellate rights Japan affords to its criminal defendants, in light of the fact that an execution can occur at any time. I support the use of the death penalty, but only in strict accordance with due process guidelines (which most US states are in violation of IMO). If a Japanese defendant is not even aware of when his execution date is, how can he possibly mount a proper defense of himself at the appellate stage? I'm disturbed.
Dear Civil Uncivil Litigator,
Your concern is not without a basis. As I recall, a lawyer for at least one of the four said that the execution had aborted a further legal challenge that was already underway.
I know next to nothing about the Japanese criminal justice system. However, I have two tidbits of information. One tidbit is perhaps mildly reassuring. The other is deeply disturbing, at least to this outside observer.
First, in Japan executions almost invariably take place only many years after a conviction and sentence become final. So there is time to mount at least some appeals and legal challenges to death sentences.
Second, it has been said (many times) that in Japan criminal convictions and sentences are almost never reversed on appeal or (I think) in any other legal proceedings. It has been said, for example, that appeals lead to reversals (and modifications?) of the original conviction and sentence less than 1% of the time. Is this actually true? Unless there are very effective informal or administrative avenues for challenging convictions and sentences, it is hard to imagine any acceptable explanation for this astonishing statistic. One would like to think that the simple number "less than 1%" veils a more complex -- and beneficent -- reality. But I don't know what the true story is.
On reflection (on my earlier post) the "less than 1%" statistic I mentioned probably refers to the rate of acquittals after formal trials. See Wikipedia's article on the Japanese judicial system. I do not recall the reported rate of reversals of criminal convictions on direct appeal.
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