Mainichi Shimbun

JAPAN: Murderer on death row gives up appeal

A former construction worker, who murdered a woman during a probation period after being released from jail on parole, has rescinded his appeal against a death sentence for his second crime.

 Kenji Kamata, 53, has been convicted of murdering a 21-year-old woman in Tokyo in 1999 and mutilating and dumping her body in Saitama Prefecture. Kamata was initially sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime.

 However, the Tokyo High Court subsequently scrapped the ruling in response to an appeal filed by the prosecution, and ordered that he be hanged. At the time, the appeal court pointed out that Kamata, who had been serving a life prison term for another robbery-murder case, committed the crime during a probation period after being released on parole.

 His defense lawyer appealed the death sentence, but Kamata has recently retracted it.