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NEWS: Killer of 7 in Akihabara Faces End of 1st Appeal




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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5521
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 5:48 pm Reply with quote
"Katō's defense stated that the death penalty was too grave of a punishment for his crime. "

Yeah, okay. because killing 7 people isnt enough? How many does he need to kill before a death penalty is "just right"?.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7981
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 8:47 pm Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
"Katō's defense stated that the death penalty was too grave of a punishment for his crime. "

Yeah, okay. because killing 7 people isnt enough? How many does he need to kill before a death penalty is "just right"?.


Agreed, I'd like to know the logic behind that too. It's a pretty ridiculous reason for an appeal from the defense. Rolling Eyes

I was under the impression that this was a fairly open and shut case, like they caught him on the scene and there were a number of surviving victims and witnesses. Confused


Last edited by Kruszer on Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:02 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Keonyn
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Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 5567
Location: Coon Rapids, MN
PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 8:55 pm Reply with quote
Recent interactions with a certain user on these forums leads me to believe that some people are incapable of accepting a problem with their behavior or the judgement against them for their actions towards others. It wouldn't surprise in the least that this type of attitude could extend all the way down to a mass-murderer. Some people just feel they can rationalize anything, and will continuously belittle and look down at anyone else because they always know better and they're always right.

He probably seriously believes he had some right or justification to do what he did and that the penalty is just societies way of silencing him or shutting up instead of recognizing his great wisdom or some garbage like that.. It can be hard to tell what goes through peoples head sometimes, but part of being a sociopath is the lack of moral responsibility and social conscience. He likely thinks he was justified and so any punishment will be unjust in his eyes.
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 1993
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:00 am Reply with quote
I thought this would be about the game, Killer 7...

As for the application of a death penalty, if supposing the person was suffering from real full blown insanity, they could get a plea in that they aren't fully in control of their actions. It all depends on whether the jury buys it and what the reality is.
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Cyberphobe



Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Posts: 194
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 2:05 am Reply with quote
WHAT? Too grave a punishment? How can receiving the death penalty for going on a KILLING RAMPAGE be considered "too grave a punishment"? For deliberately killing seven people I think they should kill him, revive him, then kill him again.
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 1993
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 6:33 pm Reply with quote
Don't know the details, but if this is to be described as a 'killing rampage' where the victims could be considered random and not personally known to the killer, is a good case that this was in fact insanity at work aka no relevant pre-determined motive against anyone in particular for some kind of pre-determined gain, could be good grounds for someone being insane and therefore not fully in control of their thought processes and therefore not as culpable for their crime, as say someone who had clearly defined motives, gain and purposeful victims who pre-meditates murder. Thus for the latter ,the death penalty could apply, and for the former one could argue that it is too 'grave' a punishment, given the state of mind. But like I said, I don't know the details, but yes under certain circumstances, one could consider a punishment too grave even for an incident of this sort.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 6:41 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Katō's defense stated that the death penalty was too grave of a punishment for his crime.


Oh, you lawyers. It sure is a grave punishment to kill someone who killed 7.
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Surrender Artist



Joined: 01 May 2011
Posts: 3264
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 7:01 pm Reply with quote
I think we should give the lawyers some benefit of the doubt. Their job is to do the best they can on behalf of their client. What kind of defense attorney worth a damn, to his clients or to the system, just rolls over and lets the prosecution get whatever they want? I realize it must seem absurd here, but the integrity and soundness of a system of justice rests in substantial part upon the presence of resistance to the urges to punish, to show authority and to satisfy vengeance. They don't and shouldn't get to pick and choose whether they do their jobs or not. One might argue that this is for some reason a foolish tactic, but I don't think that it should be held as wrong in and of itself.

What distresses me is to see the death penalty go unquestioned. Of the many disillusionments that one suffers when growing up, learning that so much of justice is just institutionalized revenge, that the courts were so often just the schoolyard dressed in suits and robes was among the worst. This man did an abominable thing, but why is the right answer to do that awful thing back to him? What does that get us but another corpse? Satisfaction? Revenge? Have we drawn up a vast body of laws, erected grand edifices of justice and filled it all with so much grandeur just to make plucking eyes and pulling teeth seem like more than it is? By all means scorn this mean, hate what he did and have sympathy for those lost or who have lost, but please at least try keep some pretense that we are not barbarians.
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Betenoire



Joined: 11 Jun 2009
Posts: 32
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 7:05 pm Reply with quote
Cyberphobe wrote:
WHAT? Too grave a punishment? How can receiving the death penalty for going on a KILLING RAMPAGE be considered "too grave a punishment"? For deliberately killing seven people I think they should kill him, revive him, then kill him again.


The job of a defense attorney is to 1) try to get their client found not guilty if possible or, in the face of evidence and not being able to do so to 2) Try to limit the sentence as much as possible.

So yeah a defense lawyer is going to try to do what their job and obtain the best result they can for their client. It sounds like the evidence is such that the best approach they think they have is to try to file an appeal on the grounds the punishment is too harsh and hope whatever judge the case winds up in front of is inclined to agree.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 7:11 pm Reply with quote
Surrender Artist wrote:
What does that get us but another corpse? Satisfaction? Revenge?


A good warning and example for the others who may attempt to do the same thing in the future?

I understand it's the lawyer's job to take such an approach, and I doubt there's much he can do but play around with words, since his client is so dumb he can't even fake remorse or insanity to save his life.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:42 am Reply with quote
egoist wrote:
Surrender Artist wrote:
What does that get us but another corpse? Satisfaction? Revenge?


A good warning and example for the others who may attempt to do the same thing in the future?
If killing X people is enough to get a death sentence, then why not kill 3X or even more? Having something left to lose is a rather important factor in human decision making.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:00 am Reply with quote
Polycell wrote:
If killing X people is enough to get a death sentence, then why not kill 3X or even more? Having something left to lose is a rather important factor in human decision making.


From the looks he kept trying to kill until he was stopped. And no, your logic is barely sustainable as you're applying reason to psychopaths.

If I get it right, because I'm not really sure you could seriously propose something like that.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:26 am Reply with quote
egoist wrote:
From the looks he kept trying to kill until he was stopped. And no, your logic is barely sustainable as you're applying reason to psychopaths.
You've also undermined your own argument, there - if somebody won't stop until they're made to, the punishment they get doesn't matter. There's also the minor fact that someone usually won't commit this sort of crime unless they don't care if they get caught or don't think they will; in neither case does the deterrent effect apply.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:30 am Reply with quote
Polycell wrote:
[...] the punishment they get doesn't matter.


Never said it did... to them. You just repeated the same thing I replied to.

egoist wrote:
A good warning and example for the others who may attempt to do the same thing in the future?
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bravetailor



Joined: 30 May 2009
Posts: 817
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:53 pm Reply with quote
jdnation wrote:
I thought this would be about the game, Killer 7...

.


You and me both, buddy. You and me both.

Embarassed
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