Sentences handed down this year on two Aum Shinrikyo figures drew a clear line between life and death.
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Kazuaki Okazaki, 38, to death in October for his role in the 1989 murder of Yokohama lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, the attorney's wife and their 1-year-old son. Okazaki was one of the six accused of carrying out the murders on orders from Aum founder Shoko Asahara, the court said.
The killings are believed to have marked the point where members of Aum embarked on a raft of heinous crimes culminating in the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, which killed 12 people and sickened thousands.