The Nagoya High Court on May 25 rejected a retrial request by Masaru Okunishi, an 86-year-old man who has been on death row for the fatal poisoning of five women in 1961. It was his seventh petition for a retrial.
The Supreme Court in 2010 had sent the case back to the Nagoya High Court, ordering it to scientifically re-examine the case. Doubts remains as to whether the high court fully responded to the top court's call and followed the principle of in dubio pro reo: that one is innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
At a community meeting on the night of March 28, 1961, in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, 17 women who drank white wine were poisoned. Five of them, including both Okunishi's wife and girlfriend, died and 12 fell sick. Initially Okunishi confessed that he laced the wine with a pesticide to put an end to a love triangle. But he retracted his confession before being indicted.
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