Japan Steps up Executions

On Tuesday, Japan executed two men convicted of murder, bringing the country's execution total for the year to 15 - believed to be much more than in previous years. There were nine executions in 2007. Japan conducts its executions by hanging and does it in secret.

The Sentencing Law and Policy blog points out that both Texas and Japan have stepped up their executions this month. Texas has executed 13 people in 2008 - five of them this month. (Texas would be way ahead of Japan on a normal year, they had to take five months off this year because the pesky Supreme Court was considering whether lethal injections were cruel and unusual).

While the chance of wrongful conviction and execution is high in the United States, it's probably higher in Japan, where 99.8% of people charged with crimes are convicted, and police are expected to get a confession out of suspects. There is no plea bargaining in Japan, but the country is planning for a transition to a more American-style jury system in 2009. I'll cover that in more depth as it gets closer.

One of the country's most outspoken critics of the death penalty, Sakae Menda (left), spent 33 years on Japan's death row before he proved his innocence on appeal. The death penalty is still widely supported in Japan, but Menda told the Japan Times it should be abolished to prevent executing the innocent.

"When I was released, people took up the cause (of abolition) but gradually lost interest. Japanese democracy is only 60 years old. The concept of human rights is not ingrained in our history," he says.

"I heard that a judge once said it was natural to sacrifice one or two citizens for the sake of Japan's judicial stability. But I believe there is nothing crueler than a government taking away a life. It is all-too human to make a mistake -- or just happen to cause problems. In this sense, I am for abolishing the death penalty."