Death Penalty Demanded on Criminal of Arson

On the historically brutal case of arson, the public prosecutors demanded an ultimate penalty to the offender. In the trial on the arson and murder in Kyoto Animation in 2019, the prosecutors requested death penalty on the defendant, Shinji Aoba. The lawyers of Aoba argued that the court should avoid sentencing death penalty. The judgement will be passed next January.

Aoba was indicted as putting fire after pouring gasoline in the building of Kyoto Animation (Kyoani), a studio producing animation works, and killed 36 staffs and injured 32 on July 18th, 2019. In the trial, Aoba argued that he could not tolerate Kyoani, because it had stolen his novel story in its works. Aoba later apologized to the victim’s families that he had done too much and regretted it.

 

In the closing argument in Kyoto Regional Court, the prosecutors demanded death penalty for Aoba, because the number of victims were extremely high in the history of criminal trials in Japan. “It is hard to describe about how the fear and dismay of the victims was, when they faced a situation as terrible as the hell,” said the prosecutors.

 

The prosecutors saw that Aoba committed the arson with firm intention. They found that Aoba arrived Kyoto three days before the incident, possessing six knives, a can for containing gasoline, a bucket and gas lighter, and observed Kyoani building in advance. They argued that Aoba kept a firm intention to kill a number of people, and did not review his motivation in spite of some chances to think twice.

 

The prosecutors analyzed that the delusion of Aoba on Kyoani’s stealing of his novel story affected constructing the motivation of arson. But they concluded that the influence of his delusion was limited to enhancing actual grudge, generated by his suspicious personality. “The suspicious interpretation of actual facts does not prevent him from death penalty,” said the prosecutors.

 

The defendant side argued that Aoba had been losing his mind at the time and not fully responsible. At the time of the incident, Aoba had been suffering from delusive difficulty, and could not imagine how his attempt would affect the people not only on the first floor, where he set fire, but others on the second and third floor.

 

The lawyers for Aoba also indicated cruelty of death penalty. Raising the provision of Constitution of Japan, which prohibits cruel punishments, they requested to avoid execution with hanging as cruel punishment.

 

The families of victims are not sure whether Aoba correctly recognize what he had done. When he was offered an opportunity to add some comment by the judge, he did nothing. The trial on the incident which shook the nation known with “anime” culture will be finished with no sincere words from the destroyer.

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