JAPAN:
A quick execution for killer Takuma -- He never expressed remorse for
killing 8 children.
Mamoru Takuma, who slaughtered 8 children at an elementary school and
hurled insults instead of apologies at the victims' families, was executed
Tuesday after less than a year on death row, sources said.
It usually takes several years before death-row inmates are sent to the
gallows. But in Takuma's case, the mass murderer apparently received his
last wish: a speedy execution.
Takuma, 40, was sentenced to death in August 2003 at the Osaka District
Court. Takuma withdrew his lawyers' appeal, and his sentence was finalized
in September that year.
According to the ruling, Takuma broke into Ikeda Elementary School in
Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, on June 8, 2001. His knife-wielding rampage left
8 pupils, aged 6 to 8, dead and 15 other children and teachers injured.
During the trial, Takuma repeatedly uttered abusive words at the victims'
grieving families.
Asked in court why he targeted Ikeda school, an elite institution attached
to Osaka Kyoiku University, Takuma said, "I want others to know the
unreasonableness that high-achieving children could be killed at any
time."
He said in his first hearing that he wanted to "atone" for his crime
with
his life, but he later insisted he had borrowed the word from news stories
and would never apologize.
Takuma never publicly expressed remorse for his crime.
Instead, he wrote a letter to his chief attorney, Shigeki Todani, saying
that he wanted to be executed "within 6 months, or 3 months if possible."
In another letter, the murderer said, "I don't want to be trapped alive
like this any longer." Takuma was even preparing to sue the state for
failing to execute him within 6 months as required by law.
The speedy execution Tuesday left mixed feelings among families of the
victims. The man who had shattered so many lives was dead, but his abrupt
demise left many questions unanswered.
"Did he change his mind and gain a feeling of atonement? I have
complicated feelings because he was executed without our knowing that,"
said a man who lost his daughter in the massacre. "If the execution just
fulfilled his wish, it is meaningless."
Todani, Takuma's attorney, said he regretted being unable to persuade
Takuma to apologize.
"I wonder if the (state) could not have waited a little longer so he might
change his mind," he said.
Educational programs to help inmates atone for their deeds and
rehabilitate themselves are offered in prison, but none is given to
death-row convicts.
The criminal procedure law stipulates that the justice minister should
order an execution within six months after a death sentence is finalized.
But execution is often delayed, especially when convicts seek a retrial or
have mental or physical problems due to an extended detention period.
According to citizens groups against capital punishment, more than 10 of
the 62 convicts sentenced to die have remained on death row for more than
a decade.
Observers say Takuma's early execution would gain social understanding
because there is no doubt he committed the crime, he expressed no remorse,
and his actions causes great pain to the victims' families.
Takuma was 1 of 2 convicts executed Tuesday, the sources said. The other
was former gangster Sueo Shimasaki, 59, executed in Fukuoka.
Shimasaki was convicted on 11 counts, including murder and robbery. His
death sentence was finalized in March 1999.
The Asahi Shimbun)