Rachel
03-25-2005, 08:50 PM
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YOKOHAMA -- A jobless man was slapped with a life prison term Friday for robbing and murdering a woman taxi driver in Kanagawa Prefecture in 2002.
The Yokohama District Court handed the sentence after dismissing the claim by the defense counsel for Yuichi Ishida, 47, that he was insane at the time of the crime and concluding that he could take fully responsibility for the crime.
"The defendant may have had a personality disorder, but it never adversely affected his ability to tell right from wrong," Presiding Judge Shozo Ogura said as he handed down the ruling. "His crime was carefully premeditated and not based on any hallucination or delusion."
Ishida's defense counsel had asked the court to either acquit him or hand down a lighter sentence than life imprisonment as demanded by prosecutors.
Ishida committed the crime shortly after he was released from Yokohama Prison where he had served a jail term for arson.
In the predawn hours of Aug. 31, 2002, Ishida got into a taxi driven by Ritsuko Kawashima, 50, in front of JR Ofuna Station in Fujisawa, forced the driver to stop the car on a municipal road in the same city, and stabbed her to death. He then stole money from the cab.
Psychiatrists had recognized Ishida's personality disorder after he said he wanted to kill women while he was serving his jail term at Yokohama Prison for arson. However, he was released in August 2002 after the psychiatrists concluded it was unnecessary to put him into a mental hospital. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, March 25, 2005)
YOKOHAMA -- A jobless man was slapped with a life prison term Friday for robbing and murdering a woman taxi driver in Kanagawa Prefecture in 2002.
The Yokohama District Court handed the sentence after dismissing the claim by the defense counsel for Yuichi Ishida, 47, that he was insane at the time of the crime and concluding that he could take fully responsibility for the crime.
"The defendant may have had a personality disorder, but it never adversely affected his ability to tell right from wrong," Presiding Judge Shozo Ogura said as he handed down the ruling. "His crime was carefully premeditated and not based on any hallucination or delusion."
Ishida's defense counsel had asked the court to either acquit him or hand down a lighter sentence than life imprisonment as demanded by prosecutors.
Ishida committed the crime shortly after he was released from Yokohama Prison where he had served a jail term for arson.
In the predawn hours of Aug. 31, 2002, Ishida got into a taxi driven by Ritsuko Kawashima, 50, in front of JR Ofuna Station in Fujisawa, forced the driver to stop the car on a municipal road in the same city, and stabbed her to death. He then stole money from the cab.
Psychiatrists had recognized Ishida's personality disorder after he said he wanted to kill women while he was serving his jail term at Yokohama Prison for arson. However, he was released in August 2002 after the psychiatrists concluded it was unnecessary to put him into a mental hospital. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, March 25, 2005)