Ex-Leader of Japan Cult Sentenced to Death in Gas Attack

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Shoko Asahara, the former leader of the religious cult that released deadly sarin gas into the Tokyo subway in 1995, was found guilty today of directing the attack and other crimes after an eight-year trial. He was sentenced to death.

The founder of the Aum Shinrikyo sect, his trademark flowing black hair and beard now graying and trimmed short, was convicted in Tokyo District Court of masterminding the attack, which killed 12 people, injured 5,500 more, and violently shook Japan's cherished self-image as one of the world's safest nations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/27/international/asia/27CND-JAPA.html?hp

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I saw this on the Japanese-language news broadcast every morning on the International Channel. Japan very rarely administers the death penalty, and the "man on the street" interviews reacting to the news were mostly, "I think it's what you would expect." ("Touzen da to omoimasu.")

[Muddleoftheroad]

1. Where are the anti-death penalty folks

Noticeably silent.

[Blue_Tires]

2. lol

I think your avatar had his own views with the ol' "eye-for-an-eye leaving everybody blind"

[Muddleoftheroad]

5. Just because he is my avatar

Doesn't mean I am entirely like him. If I had a George Washington Carver avatar, would I have to become a peanut expert?

[Blue_Tires]

14. thanks for calling out all the anti-DP folks...and

the next time a death-row inmate is found innocent and released after years of waiting, or the next time an executed man is determined to be innocent, you'll be the first person i call out

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. You mean like this?

“Japan and the United States are leading democracies which have been very vocal on their commitment to human rights. We are calling on them to stand by their own standards of civilised behaviour.”

The President concluded: “My message on the eve of International Death Penalty Abolition Day (1 March) is a call on states across the world to reject the use of capital punishment. Death penalty is not justice. And as Martin Luther King said: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ ”

http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=http%3A%2F%2Fassembly.coe.int%2Fpress%2FCP04%2F098a%2804%29.htm

[truthspeaker]

7. yo, right here

I would prefer this murderer spend the rest of his life in prison. But I'm not a Japanese citizen so I generally confine my criticism of the death penalty to the United States.

Actually, until this morning I didn't realize Japan had capital punishment.

And before anyone asks, yes, this man deserves death. That's not the issue for me. I oppose the death penalty because no human justice system can be 100% infallible, not because I feel sorry for the guilty.

[Muddleoftheroad]

10. They are executing him because he remains a threat

Funny how that works.

[bpilgrim]

16. ever heard the term martyr

not so funny how that works...

peace

[Progress]

11. Must we go through this every time?

Yes, there are some very bad people in the world. I think we can all agree on that. It isn't necessary to point every single one of them out each time and say "So are you still against the death penalty?". I think it is insulting to anti-death penalty people to assume that they are simply naive about the existence of evil.

As with vegetarianism, there is a wide variety of reasons death penalty opponents feel the way they do. Some may not object to the death penalty in theory, but feel the implementation leaves a lot to be desired and observe that it is not applied equally across racial lines even for comparable crimes. Some may think it lowers us in the eyes of the international community. Some may object because there is no way to "undo" it if we later found a mistake has been made. Some object for reasons of cost or because they feel it is not an effective deterrent. Some argue that "two wrongs cannot make a right" and object to their government condoning the taking of a human life. Some feel it is unconstitutional. Some may even feel that it is too kind and that life in prison is a harsher and therefore more appropriate punishment. I could go on and on...

The point is, please do not insult death penalty opponents by assuming that they are simply unaware that there are evil people in the world. And, in case it matters, I myself am not 100% opposed to the death penalty on ethical grounds, but think it should be reserved for rare cases and that extra precautions and measures should be in place to make sure the possibility of error is made as slight as possible.

[veganwitch]

15. funny...

i have you on ignore, yet i still know when you post. (had to turn it back on to reply)

edit: poof! back on ignore you go.

[DubyaSux]

4. I hope this highlights the hype of WMD

This guy (and his cronies) released sarin into a subway. This is the worse case scenario with some of the worst WMD. They had something like 50,000 liters of this stuff. It sounds like something out of some doomsday movie.

12 people died. 2 from the gas, 10 from the chaos. We invaded a country and sacrifice an American life each day because of a threat that under the worst case conditions, would have killed less people in one day than we lose in an hour because of drunk driving.

Where's our war on drunk driving? Or do those lives have less value than the innocents from 9/11?

[Sufi Marmot]

6. They had less than 10 liters of sarin, not 50,000...

50,000 liters is industrial-scale capacity. 10 liters is plenty enough to kill lots of people, though...


-SM

[Kagemusha]

9. I think you're confusing this group with what Saddam supposedly had

Honest mistake I'm sure. Have a nice day.

[newyawker99]

18. Hi DubyaSux!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Kagemusha]

8. I don't know if they could keep public order if they hadn't done this.

It is what people expect. If they hadn't done this people would have found it utterly extraordinary. It's been a foregone conclusion for a pretty long time.

Btw Lydia: It's J.B. - my old account's toasted with my computer upgrade. Long time no see.

[TexasMexican]

12. Good.

The guy definately deserves the death penalty.

I havent heard too much on how the Japanese carry out thier death penalties though.

What method of execution do they use? I'm guessing they dont behead people with samurai swords anymore, or do they?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. The last I heard

which was about 15 years ago, they used hanging.

However, they actually administer the death penalty so seldom that they could have changed it and I wouldn't know.

[American Renaissance]

13. old age

most death row inmates in Japan die of old age,