OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court sentenced a 53-year-old paroled killer to death Tuesday for fatally stabbing a man and a woman in Osaka Prefecture in 1998.
Susumu Nakayama, a former construction worker, was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing Takemitsu Kikugawa, 37, a plasterer, and Kikugawa's lover, Minako Kobuchi, 40, a restaurant employee, on a street in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, on Feb. 19, 1998, with a kitchen knife and a hand-made spear.
Nakayama, who was dating Kikugawa's wife at the time, decided to kill Kikugawa after becoming enraged when the couple's divorce proceedings became deadlocked, the court said.
Presiding Judge Makoto Himuro said: "There is no room for leniency, concerning such selfish reasons to kill someone out of one-sided hatred. It is an appallingly brutal crime, which was carefully premeditated with a firm intent to kill.
"The court has no choice but to sentence him to death, since he has shown no remorse," the judge said.
Prosecutors had demanded capital punishment, arguing that the crimes were brutal and that Nakayama cannot be rehabilitated.
Nakayama's lawyers said their client did not have the intent to kill and could only be accused of committing bodily injury resulting in death. Nakayama plans to appeal the ruling.
Nakayama was also sentenced to death in a robbery-murder case in 1970 by the Kochi District Court, but the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment by the Takamatsu High Court in 1973. He was released on parole in 1991.