Takanori Hoshijima, 34, a former temporary worker from Tokyo’s Koto Ward, was given a life sentence at the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday for murder and destruction of a corpse.
Posts Tagged ‘Murder’
24 Feb
Tokyo man handed life term for murdering, mutilating female neighbor – The Mainichi Daily News
9 Feb
Unable to ID Guilty Twin, Judge Spares Brothers Death Penalty
Saturday, February 07, 2009KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Identical twin brothers escaped the death penalty in a Malaysian drug trafficking trial after the court ruled authorities could not prove which man committed the alleged crime, news reports said Saturday.“I … can’t be sending the wrong person to the gallows,” the New Straits Times newspaper quoted the judge in the case as saying.
Police arrested the 27-year-old brothers in August 2003 after they found large amounts of opium and marijuana in a house to which one of the twins had the key, the New Straits Times and national news agency Bernama reported.
Both men were charged, but Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Zaharah Ibrahim ruled Friday that only the twin with the key could be proven to be the owner of the drugs.
Because the brothers’ identical features made it impossible for officers testifying to point out which one had been found with the key, she had no choice but to acquit both men.
She called the ruling “a very unique case.” Court officials familiar with the case could not immediately be reached.
The twins wept and hugged each other after the judge read her verdict, the reports added.
Malaysia has a mandatory penalty of death by hanging for drug trafficking. More than 200 people have been executed since capital punishment was implemented for the offense in 1975.
31 Jan
Ill. mob boss gets life for ‘unspeakable’ murders
By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer Mike Robinson, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jan 29, 6:45 am ET
AP – A 1983 photo released by the Chicago Crime Commission shows Chicago crime boss Frank J. Calabrese Sr. …
CHICAGO – Reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr., one of five men convicted at Chicago’s biggest underworld trial in decades, was sentenced to life in prison by a judge who described the murders he was accused of as “unspeakable.”
U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel told Calabrese that his laughter during some of the trial’s most grisly testimony “showed a certain callousness — you were laughing about an impending killing.”
“You are in fact guilty of appalling acts, and the fact that there may be people in the world who are worse than you doesn’t excuse your actions,” said Zagel, who presided over the government’s landmark Operation Family Secrets trial.
“I just want to say that your crimes are unspeakable and the sentence I am about to impose on you is just,” Zagel said Wednesday.
The hefty 71-year-old Calabrese, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit and wearing leg irons, was held responsible by the jury for seven long unsolved mob murders. And the pre-sentence report prepared for the judge held him responsible for six more.
“The defendant slit people’s throats, he shot people, he strangled people,” Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk told the judge.
Relatives of some of those killed, some of them crying, denounced Calabrese in court for destroying their family lives.
“You ripped my heart out,” said Peggy Cagnoni, whose husband was murdered.
Charlene Moravecek turned to Calabrese and described him as an “animal,” saying her husband had been “slaughtered” and “dumped like a piece of trash.”
Calabrese, given a chance to speak, denied that he murdered any of the victims. He said he felt sorry for the relatives.
“My life is in the hands of God,” he said. He said he suffers from an enlarged heart and a host of other ailments while being held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell.
“I’ve been fighting every day to live and it isn’t enjoyable living in that hellhole for no reason,” he said.
Calabrese was among five men convicted in September 2007 at the Family Secrets trial, a major multiyear effort by the federal government to strike a powerful blow at the Chicago Outfit as the city’s organized crime family calls itself. The investigation was also designed to clear 18 long unsolved mob murders dating back to the early 1970s.
AP – A 1983 photo released by the Chicago Crime Commission shows Chicago crime boss Frank J. Calabrese Sr. …
CHICAGO – Reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr., one of five men convicted at Chicago’s biggest underworld trial in decades, was sentenced to life in prison by a judge who described the murders he was accused of as “unspeakable.”
U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel told Calabrese that his laughter during some of the trial’s most grisly testimony “showed a certain callousness — you were laughing about an impending killing.”
“You are in fact guilty of appalling acts, and the fact that there may be people in the world who are worse than you doesn’t excuse your actions,” said Zagel, who presided over the government’s landmark Operation Family Secrets trial.
“I just want to say that your crimes are unspeakable and the sentence I am about to impose on you is just,” Zagel said Wednesday.
The hefty 71-year-old Calabrese, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit and wearing leg irons, was held responsible by the jury for seven long unsolved mob murders. And the pre-sentence report prepared for the judge held him responsible for six more.
“The defendant slit people’s throats, he shot people, he strangled people,” Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk told the judge.
Relatives of some of those killed, some of them crying, denounced Calabrese in court for destroying their family lives.
“You ripped my heart out,” said Peggy Cagnoni, whose husband was murdered.
Charlene Moravecek turned to Calabrese and described him as an “animal,” saying her husband had been “slaughtered” and “dumped like a piece of trash.”
Calabrese, given a chance to speak, denied that he murdered any of the victims. He said he felt sorry for the relatives.
“My life is in the hands of God,” he said. He said he suffers from an enlarged heart and a host of other ailments while being held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell.
“I’ve been fighting every day to live and it isn’t enjoyable living in that hellhole for no reason,” he said.
Calabrese was among five men convicted in September 2007 at the Family Secrets trial, a major multiyear effort by the federal government to strike a powerful blow at the Chicago Outfit as the city’s organized crime family calls itself. The investigation was also designed to clear 18 long unsolved mob murders dating back to the early 1970s.
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