The prosecution had demanded a death sentence — the first such demand since lay judge trials started in August 2009 — in a lay judge trial of 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. Six lay judges — four women and two men — and three professional judges at the Tokyo District Court on Monday handed down a life sentence against him.

The lay judges apparently had a hard time deciding which sentence — a death sentence or a life sentence — should be given and whether the man is really repentant. He had admitted that he had killed the woman and her grandmother in their house in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in August 2009.

According to the ruling, the man had something close to tender feelings toward the woman, but after she told him not to visit her shop anymore, he became depressed and fell into despair and his tender feelings changed into anger and hatred, leading him to decide to kill her. The ruling said his responsibility is grave. But it also said that he is not antisocial or cruel and that he is deeply repentant about what he did. It also said his killing of the grandmother was accidental.