Man acquitted in murders of mother, children

The Asahi Shimbun
November 28, 2007
Source: http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200711280271.html

HIROSHIMA--The district court here Wednesday acquitted a man charged with murdering his mother and two daughters for insurance money, citing a lack of evidence and doubting the credibility of his confession.

Presiding Judge Keisuke Hosoda of the Hiroshima District Court said a "reasonable doubt" remains that Kuniharu Nakamura, 37, a former company employee in the city, committed the 2001 crime.

"There is no evidence that he was present at the crime scene," the judge said. "And his confession also lacks credibility since it went through unnatural changes."

After handing down the ruling, Hosoda said, "The suspect may not be completely free from suspicions, but we could not affirm that he was guilty."

The ruling marks the third time since 1978 for a district court to acquit a suspect in a case in which prosecutors were seeking the death sentence, according to the Supreme Court.

Nakamura was indicted on charges of murdering his mother, Sayoko, then 53, by strangling her at her home in the city's Nishi Ward past 3 a.m. on Jan. 17, 2001.

He was also charged with setting fire to her home around 3:30 a.m. using kerosene. His two daughters, Ayaka, then 8, and Arisu, then 6, died in the blaze.

Police questioned Nakamura for about a month, but were unable to come up with a suspect.

The case took a sharp turn after Nakamura admitted to starting the fire in May last year after he was arrested over fraud allegations. He was accused of faking divorce papers so that his wife could receive welfare payments for child support.

Nakamura told investigators he was aware his confession could lead to his death by capital punishment.

But he retracted that confession after his murder-arson trial started in September last year.

"I confessed because the questioning was overbearing," Nakamura said.

In the final arguments of the defense, Nakamura contended that the real killer of his mother and children remained at large.

Prosecutors argued in the trial that Nakamura committed the crime to receive 73 million yen ($673,121) in insurance benefits from the deaths of the three.

But the court said it was highly unnatural for Nakamura to change from a man seeking the death penalty to commit suicide over his debts to a greedy man selfishly trying to obtain insurance money.

The ruling also said prosecutors produced no evidence that Nakamura knew beforehand the contents of the insurance policies on his mother and children.

The court said it cannot rule out the possibility that investigators forced the confession after finding no conclusive evidence, such as Nakamura knowing details of the crime that only the perpetrator could know.

"We acquitted him because we strictly applied the principle of 'reasonable doubt' to this case to prevent a wrongful conviction," Judge Hosoda said.(IHT/Asahi: November 28, 2007)

Man acquitted of murdering mom, 2 daughters despite prosecutors demanding he hang

The Mainichi Shimbun
November 28, 2007
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071128p2a00m0na036000c.html

HIROSHIMA -- A 37-year-old man was acquitted Wednesday of murdering his mother and two daughters after a court ruled that his confessions were not reliable.

The Hiroshima District Court found Kuniharu Nakamura, 37, a former company employee, not guilty.

"The confession (of the defendant) is questionable, and it lacks reliability in order for us to determine that he's the culprit," Presiding Judge Keisuke Hosoda said as he handed down the ruling.

Nakamura's confession was the only key evidence in the murder case, and its reliability was the focus of the trial. Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Nakamura, and they are set to appeal the ruling.

According to the indictment, Nakamura strangled his mother, Sayoko Nakamura, 53, a restaurant operator, at her home in Hiroshima at around 3 a.m. on Jan. 17, 2001. Nakamura then allegedly poured kerosene around the home and set the house ablaze, burning to death his daughters Ayaka, 8, and Arisu, 6.

Prosecutors also allege Nakamura swindled an insurance company out of a total of some 73 million yen in life insurance benefits he'd taken out on the three victims.

In June last year, Nakamura was indicted on charges of fraud for illicitly receiving child-care allowances. Nakamura then filed a report with police that he strangled his mother and set her house ablaze, burning his two daughters to death.

Later, Nakamura confessed to the killings and the court adopted the confession papers as evidence in the case. However, Nakamura denied the facts presented in the indictment during the trial, and his lawyers maintained his innocence by saying, "His confession papers are the only evidence, which is unworthy of evidence."

There have been six court cases since 1978 in which prosecutors demanded the death penalty but the defendant was acquitted in the first trial, according to the Supreme Court.

Among them, four cases turned out to be false accusations, while in the other two cases the reliability of the defendants' report or confession was denied by the court.

（Mainichi Japan） November 28, 2007