Murder of Rie Isogai
Encyclopedia
was a 31-year-old Japanese office clerk who was robbed
and murder
ed in Aichi Prefecture
, Japan
on the night of 24 August 2007 by three men who became acquainted through an underground message board. Her murder led to a signature campaign to call for the death penalty on the three murderers, one of whom was sentenced to death on 18 March 2009, and two of the murderers were sentenced to life in prison on 13 April 2011.
, posted a message to seek partners in crime on a cellphone website used for exchanging shady information. His message implying robbery was read and responded by , and . Kanda was a 36-year-old Asahi Shimbun
salesman brought up in Takasaki
, Gunma Prefecture
. Hori was a 32-year-old unemployed darts
player who was under a heavy debt amounting to 4 million yen. Hondō was a 29-year-old jobless man who had difficulty paying his rent. All of them were desperate for cash.
After exchanging several emails, the four men met face-to-face for the first time on 21 August to discuss how they would be able to get money with ease. Hori suggested robbing a wealthy pachinko
player whom he knew, and the other three agreed. They tried in vain to rob him on the same day. On the night of 23 August, Kawagishi and Hondō broke into a plumber's office in Nagakute, where Kawagishi ran away from fright, leaving Hondō alone. With too little money to go home, Hondō surrendered to the police, arrested for trespassing and attempted theft in the early hours of the 24th.
On the afternoon of 24 August, Kawagishi, Kanda and Hori met to draft another plot at the parking lot of a video rental shop in Midori
, Nagoya. Kanda suggested that they kidnap and rob a woman walking on a street and kill her to prevent their robbery from being detected. Hori and Kawagishi agreed to his proposal.
on Isogai and threatened her with knives to demand her money and ATM card
s while Kawagishi drove his van to a lonely parking lot in Aisai, a suburban city of Nagoya. At the parking lot, Hori pulled a knife on Isogai and extracted her PIN
for ATM cards.
Just after the midnight, Kawagishi tried to rape
Isogai though he failed in his attempt because Kanda and Hori stopped him. His sudden attempt to rape her frightened her so much that she tried to get out of the van, which made the three decide to kill her immediately. In spite of her desperate begging for her own life, about 1 o'clock, Kanda wrapped packing tapes around her head to smother her, and, finding her still alive, bludgeoned her head with a hammer approximately thirty times, with Hori and Kawagishi choking her with a rope.
After killing her, the three men dumped the victim's body in a forest in Mizunami, Gifu Prefecture
around 4 o'clock, and tried to withdraw money from her bank account at an ATM
in a convenience store
, only to find that she had told them a wrong PIN. Disappointed after failing to withdraw money, they shared 62,000 yen which they had found in the victim's handbag, and parted, promising that they would rob and kill women at random near Nagoya Station
in the evening that day.
provides that punishment shall be extenuated if a criminal surrenders before being identified as a suspect by the authorities.
Finding the victim's body abandoned as described by him, the police arrested Kawagishi and his crime partners on 26 August. Fumiko Isogai, the victim's mother and only family member, identified the body on the same day of their arrest.
The three were charged with murder for robbery, kidnapping for profit, confinement
and abandonment of a corpse by 5 October 2007. Kawagishi was additionally charged with attempted rape at the scene of robbery.
Although single murderers rarely face a death penalty in Japan
, Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a criminal law
scholar at Hakuoh University
and former prosecutor
of the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office, expected that the recent trend toward stricter punishments, backed by the growing public support for capital punishment, would encourage the court to sentence Kanda and Hori to death.
Kawagishi's and Kanda's fathers also asked the court to sentence their sons to death.
argued that they should not be punished by death because the crime was carried out in an atmosphere that disabled the bluffing men to say no to each other, whatever atrocious act might be proposed, and because the killing of Isogai was accidental and could not be said to be so vicious as to result in capital punishment, given the sentences handed down in similar cases in the past.
The defendants disputed over who among them was the principal culprit
and when they agreed to kill the victim. Kawagishi insisted that Kanda was the principal and that he had not known the plan to kill the woman until he saw the other two begin to smother her. Hori also claimed that Kanda led the crime and that he had not thought of murdering the victim until Kanda suggested choking her at the last minute. Kanda said that they had achieved an consensus on murder before they began to search for a woman to rob of money but that it had not been serious until Kawagishi's attempt to rape her made Isogai change her attitude, claiming that Hori, who allegedly hit the victim on the head with a hammer before Kanda did, was the principal.
During the sessions of the trial, the defendants often got into the quarrel with each other. Kanda made fun of Rie Isogai and called her a liar in his blog
, which he started in order to reveal what he claims to be the true story of this case. Kawagishi said that the victim was just unlucky. Seeing the defendants far from apologetic, Fumiko Isogai said that their words were unbearable and added, "It might be better than superficial apologies".
The prosecutors demanded capital punishment for all the defendants in the closing argument
on 20 January 2009. They insisted that the court sentence Kawagishi to death despite his voluntary surrender because he was unrepentant and the police would have been able to arrest the three without his surrender.
because the court judged that he had provided the police with useful information that led to the arrest of Kanda and Hori.
Major national newspapers published editorials in support of Kondō's unorthodox judgment on the premise that capital punishment is retained. The Asahi Shimbun
and The Mainichi Shimbun
wrote in their editorials that most people would be supportive of this judgment. The Nikkei
commented that the judgment was reasonable. The Sankei Shimbun
aggressively evaluated the judgment with a phrase "a natural and down-to-earth judgment of great significance". The Tokyo Shimbun
expressed that capital punishment was inevitable when they thought how brutal the murder was and what the victim's family felt of it. They also noted, however, that it would be difficult for citizen judges to determine whether death penalty would be appropriate in this kind of case under the lay judge system
, which was started in May 2009. Hiroshi Itakura, a criminal law scholar at Nihon University
said that this decision could be a new criterion for capital punishment under the lay judge system.
Four hours after he received the death penalty, Hori told journalists that he felt the word of capital punishment "heavy" though he had been prepared for it. Kawagishi said, "I'm glad my surrender was counted and I didn't get a death sentence."
The victim's mother and boyfriend expressed their disappointment at the judgment which saved Kawagishi's life.
On 13 April 2011 he Nagoya High Court affirmed Kawagishi life sentence and reduced Hori' death sentence to life, ruling their are both less responsible than Kanda. But the prosecution appealed the ruling to the Supreme court.
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed in Aichi Prefecture
Aichi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region. The region of Aichi is also known as the Tōkai region. The capital is Nagoya. It is the focus of the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area.- History :...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on the night of 24 August 2007 by three men who became acquainted through an underground message board. Her murder led to a signature campaign to call for the death penalty on the three murderers, one of whom was sentenced to death on 18 March 2009, and two of the murderers were sentenced to life in prison on 13 April 2011.
Background
On 17 August 2007, , a 40-year-old jobless man living in a vanVan
A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...
, posted a message to seek partners in crime on a cellphone website used for exchanging shady information. His message implying robbery was read and responded by , and . Kanda was a 36-year-old Asahi Shimbun
Asahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
salesman brought up in Takasaki
Takasaki, Gunma
is a city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan.The city was founded on April 1, 1900.Takasaki is a regional transportation hub because its train station is the junction of several rail lines as well as a Shinkansen stop....
, Gunma Prefecture
Gunma Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshu island. Its capital is Maebashi.- History :The remains of a Paleolithic man were found at Iwajuku, Gunma Prefecture, in the early 20th century and there is a public museum there.Japan was without horses until...
. Hori was a 32-year-old unemployed darts
Darts
Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...
player who was under a heavy debt amounting to 4 million yen. Hondō was a 29-year-old jobless man who had difficulty paying his rent. All of them were desperate for cash.
After exchanging several emails, the four men met face-to-face for the first time on 21 August to discuss how they would be able to get money with ease. Hori suggested robbing a wealthy pachinko
Pachinko
is a type of game originating in Japan, and used as both a form of recreational arcade game and much more frequently as a gambling device, filling a niche in gambling in Japan comparable to that of the slot machine in Western gambling. A pachinko machine resembles a vertical pinball machine, but...
player whom he knew, and the other three agreed. They tried in vain to rob him on the same day. On the night of 23 August, Kawagishi and Hondō broke into a plumber's office in Nagakute, where Kawagishi ran away from fright, leaving Hondō alone. With too little money to go home, Hondō surrendered to the police, arrested for trespassing and attempted theft in the early hours of the 24th.
On the afternoon of 24 August, Kawagishi, Kanda and Hori met to draft another plot at the parking lot of a video rental shop in Midori
Midori-ku, Nagoya
is one of the 16 wards of the city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.Midori-ku is one of the sixteen wards within Nagoya city and is located to the south east of the city. As of July 1, 2006, it has become the ward with the highest population, surpassing even Nakagawa-ku by a small amount....
, Nagoya. Kanda suggested that they kidnap and rob a woman walking on a street and kill her to prevent their robbery from being detected. Hori and Kawagishi agreed to his proposal.
Murder
Aboard Kawagishi's van, the three men had searched for a woman walking alone since around 19 o'clock until they saw Rie Isogai walking home on a dark street in the Jiyūgaoka neighborhood of Chikusa, Nagoya around 22 o'clock. Hori got out of the van and approached her, pretending to be asking directions, and forced her into the van. Kanda and Hori put handcuffsHandcuffs
Handcuffs are restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists close together. They comprise two parts, linked together by a chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each half has a rotating arm which engages with a ratchet that prevents it from being opened once closed around a person's wrist...
on Isogai and threatened her with knives to demand her money and ATM card
ATM card
An ATM card is a card issued by a bank, credit union or building society that can be used at an ATM for deposits, withdrawals, account information, and other types of transactions, often through interbank networks.Some ATM cards can also be used:* at a branch, as identification for in-person...
s while Kawagishi drove his van to a lonely parking lot in Aisai, a suburban city of Nagoya. At the parking lot, Hori pulled a knife on Isogai and extracted her PIN
Personal identification number
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
for ATM cards.
Just after the midnight, Kawagishi tried to rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
Isogai though he failed in his attempt because Kanda and Hori stopped him. His sudden attempt to rape her frightened her so much that she tried to get out of the van, which made the three decide to kill her immediately. In spite of her desperate begging for her own life, about 1 o'clock, Kanda wrapped packing tapes around her head to smother her, and, finding her still alive, bludgeoned her head with a hammer approximately thirty times, with Hori and Kawagishi choking her with a rope.
After killing her, the three men dumped the victim's body in a forest in Mizunami, Gifu Prefecture
Gifu Prefecture
is a prefecture located in the Chūbu region of central Japan. Its capital is the city of Gifu.Located in the center of Japan, it has long played an important part as the crossroads of Japan, connecting the east to the west through such routes as the Nakasendō...
around 4 o'clock, and tried to withdraw money from her bank account at an ATM
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
in a convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
, only to find that she had told them a wrong PIN. Disappointed after failing to withdraw money, they shared 62,000 yen which they had found in the victim's handbag, and parted, promising that they would rob and kill women at random near Nagoya Station
Nagoya Station
is a train station in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Japan. It is one of the world's largest train stations by floor area , and houses the headquarters of the Central Japan Railway Company . Much of this space is located in the "JR Central Towers" atop the station, as well as in underground concourses. The...
in the evening that day.
Arrest
On 25 August 2007, Kawagishi telephoned the police to confess to the crime around 13:00. As for the reason he surrendered to the police, he explained that he was scared of receiving capital punishment. The Japanese penal codeCriminal Code of Japan
The Penal Code of Japan was passed in 1907 as Law No. 45. It is one of the Six Codes that form the foundation of Japanese law.- External links :* - Japanese Ministry of Justice...
provides that punishment shall be extenuated if a criminal surrenders before being identified as a suspect by the authorities.
Finding the victim's body abandoned as described by him, the police arrested Kawagishi and his crime partners on 26 August. Fumiko Isogai, the victim's mother and only family member, identified the body on the same day of their arrest.
The three were charged with murder for robbery, kidnapping for profit, confinement
Confinement
Confinement may refer to either* Civil confinement for psychiatric patients* Color confinement, the physical principle explaining the non-observation of color charged particles like free quarks* Solitary confinement, a strict form of imprisonment...
and abandonment of a corpse by 5 October 2007. Kawagishi was additionally charged with attempted rape at the scene of robbery.
Petition for death penalty
Fumiko Isogai, who had her only child killed in this crime, launched a campaign to call for the death penalty on the three murderers in September 2007. Within ten days, her petition was signed by 100,000 citizens. She presented her petition for the death penalty with some 150,000 signatures to the District Public Prosecutors' Office of Nagoya on 23 October 2007. About 318,000 citizens had signed her petition by December 2008.Although single murderers rarely face a death penalty in Japan
Capital punishment in Japan
Capital punishment is legal in Japan. The only crimes for which capital punishment is statutory are homicide and treason. Between 1946 and 1993, Japanese courts sentenced 766 people to death , 608 of whom were executed...
, Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
scholar at Hakuoh University
Hakuoh University
is a private university in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.The name Hakuoh, meaning 'white seagull', and the motto plus ultra, or 'more beyond', are intended to inspire students to soar to their fullest potential...
and former prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
of the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office, expected that the recent trend toward stricter punishments, backed by the growing public support for capital punishment, would encourage the court to sentence Kanda and Hori to death.
Kawagishi's and Kanda's fathers also asked the court to sentence their sons to death.
Trial
The trial started at the District Court of Nagoya on 25 September 2008. All the defendants admitted to robbing and murdering Rie Isogai at the first session. They agreed that the brutality escalated as they were making a bluff. Kanda told Kawagishi at their first meeting that he had committed homicide twice, and Hori wrote in an email to Kawagishi that he had just been released from prison, both of which turned out to be lies each of them told to make himself look bigger than the others. The defense attorneysAttorney at law (Japan)
In Japan, form the base of the country's legal community. They are the only individuals authorized to represent others and they are automatically qualified to practice in most Japanese legal professions...
argued that they should not be punished by death because the crime was carried out in an atmosphere that disabled the bluffing men to say no to each other, whatever atrocious act might be proposed, and because the killing of Isogai was accidental and could not be said to be so vicious as to result in capital punishment, given the sentences handed down in similar cases in the past.
The defendants disputed over who among them was the principal culprit
Principal (criminal law)
Under criminal law, a principal is any actor who is primarily responsible for a criminal offense. Such an actor is distinguished from others who may also be subject to criminal liability as accomplices, accessories or conspirators....
and when they agreed to kill the victim. Kawagishi insisted that Kanda was the principal and that he had not known the plan to kill the woman until he saw the other two begin to smother her. Hori also claimed that Kanda led the crime and that he had not thought of murdering the victim until Kanda suggested choking her at the last minute. Kanda said that they had achieved an consensus on murder before they began to search for a woman to rob of money but that it had not been serious until Kawagishi's attempt to rape her made Isogai change her attitude, claiming that Hori, who allegedly hit the victim on the head with a hammer before Kanda did, was the principal.
During the sessions of the trial, the defendants often got into the quarrel with each other. Kanda made fun of Rie Isogai and called her a liar in his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, which he started in order to reveal what he claims to be the true story of this case. Kawagishi said that the victim was just unlucky. Seeing the defendants far from apologetic, Fumiko Isogai said that their words were unbearable and added, "It might be better than superficial apologies".
The prosecutors demanded capital punishment for all the defendants in the closing argument
Closing argument
A closing argument, summation, or summing up is the concluding statement of each party's counsel reiterating the important arguments for the trier of fact, often the jury, in a court case. A closing argument occurs after the presentation of evidence...
on 20 January 2009. They insisted that the court sentence Kawagishi to death despite his voluntary surrender because he was unrepentant and the police would have been able to arrest the three without his surrender.
Judgment
On 18 March 2009, the district court found the defendants guilty of all the charges. It sentenced Kanda and Hori to death. Judge Hiroko Kondō determined in the ruling that Kanda had played a leading role in the murder. She said that their motives for the crime left no room for leniency and that capital punishment was the only option, even after considering that there was only one victim, because their criminal acts were extremely merciless and heinous and deemed to be a serious threat to the society. Kawagishi was sentenced to imprisonment for life with possibility of paroleParole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
because the court judged that he had provided the police with useful information that led to the arrest of Kanda and Hori.
Major national newspapers published editorials in support of Kondō's unorthodox judgment on the premise that capital punishment is retained. The Asahi Shimbun
Asahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
and The Mainichi Shimbun
Mainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by .-History:The history of the Mainichi Shimbun begins with founding of two papers during the Meiji period. The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun was founded first, in 1872. The Mainichi claims that it is the oldest existing Japanese daily newspaper...
wrote in their editorials that most people would be supportive of this judgment. The Nikkei
Nihon Keizai Shimbun
is one of the largest media corporations in Japan. Nikkei specializes in publishing financial, business and industry news. Its main news publications include:* Nihon Keizai Shimbun , a leading economic newspaper....
commented that the judgment was reasonable. The Sankei Shimbun
Sankei Shimbun
is a daily newspaper in Japan published by the . It has the sixth highest circulation for a newspaper in Japan, and is considered as one of the five "national" newspapers...
aggressively evaluated the judgment with a phrase "a natural and down-to-earth judgment of great significance". The Tokyo Shimbun
Tokyo Shimbun
The Tokyo Shimbun is a Japanese newspaper published by The Chunichi Shimbun Company. The group publishes newspapers under the brand name of The Tokyo Shimbun in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area and under The Chunichi Shimbun in the Nagoya Metropolitan Area. The group’s combined daily morning...
expressed that capital punishment was inevitable when they thought how brutal the murder was and what the victim's family felt of it. They also noted, however, that it would be difficult for citizen judges to determine whether death penalty would be appropriate in this kind of case under the lay judge system
Juries in Japan
Lay judges in Japan were first introduced to in 1923, led by Prime Minister Kato Tomosaburo. Although the system generated relatively high acquittal rates, it was rarely used, in part because it required defendants to give up their rights to appeal of the factual determinations made. The system...
, which was started in May 2009. Hiroshi Itakura, a criminal law scholar at Nihon University
Nihon University
Nihon University is the largest university in Japan. Akiyoshi Yamada, the minister of justice, founded Nihon Law School in October 1889....
said that this decision could be a new criterion for capital punishment under the lay judge system.
Four hours after he received the death penalty, Hori told journalists that he felt the word of capital punishment "heavy" though he had been prepared for it. Kawagishi said, "I'm glad my surrender was counted and I didn't get a death sentence."
The victim's mother and boyfriend expressed their disappointment at the judgment which saved Kawagishi's life.
Appeal
The three defendants also appealed to the High Court of Nagoya to have their sentences reduced. However, Kanda withdrew his own appeal without his attorney's consent to have his death sentence finalized on 13 April 2009. The prosecutors lodged an appeal against the district court's decision for Kawagishi on 27 March 2009.On 13 April 2011 he Nagoya High Court affirmed Kawagishi life sentence and reduced Hori' death sentence to life, ruling their are both less responsible than Kanda. But the prosecution appealed the ruling to the Supreme court.