Six years ago, the Supreme Court decided to dismiss the appeal of a defendant sentenced to death in the first instance and life imprisonment in the second instance for murdering five neighbors in Sumoto City, Awaji Island, Hyogo Prefecture. , Indefinite imprisonment will be confirmed.
In 2015, Tatsuhiko Hirano, a 46-year-old defendant in Sumoto City, Hyogo Prefecture, was charged with murder and other charges for stabbed and killed five members of two families who lived near his home with a knife.
At the trial, the defendant's lawyer pleaded not guilty for not being responsible due to the effects of mental illness, but the Kobe District Court of the first instance judged that he was sufficiently responsible based on the results of the psychotic examination and was sentenced to death. I handed it over.
On the other hand, the Osaka High Court of the second trial decided that "the state of responsibility was significantly reduced" after conducting a psychological examination again, canceled the death penalty of the first trial, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
In response to this, the prosecution did not appeal, but the defendant appealed, but Keiichi Hayashi, the judge of the Supreme Court's third small court, decided to dismiss by 22nd, and the sentence of life imprisonment will be finalized. became.
This is the seventh case in which the lay judge trial of the first trial sentenced him to death, but the second trial canceled it and was sentenced to life imprisonment.