In August 2009 the first trial under the lay judge system was held. So far, more than 1,000 rulings have been handed down in lay judge trials. There has always been the possibility that lay judges would have to consider the prosecution's demand for a death sentence. For the first time in a lay judge trial, prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty at Tokyo District Court. The defendant is a 42-year-old man charged with murdering a 21-year-old female worker at a Tokyo ear-cleaning shop, which he frequented, and her 78-year-old grandmother.
The prosecution alleged that the man, who fell in unrequited love with the woman, decided to kill her out of anger and despair after she refused his request for a date as well as further visits to the shop. He admits that he killed the woman and her grandmother in their house in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in August 2009. The prosecution said the crime was cruel and premeditated and that the man had a strong intention to murder.
The defense counsel argued that the man suffered from a diminished capacity to tell right from wrong and to control his actions at the time of the crime, that he repented of what he had done, and that he wrote letters of remorse every day to family members of the victims.