Source: World Wide Web
Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" reported on the 4th that in response to the 2017 case of a man who committed murder in the north district of Kobe City, causing 3 deaths and 2 serious injuries, the Kobe District Court made a judgment on November 4, rejecting the prosecutor's request for life imprisonment for the defendant on the grounds that the defendant Takeshima Yeshi did not have the capacity for criminal responsibility, and pronounced the defendant innocent.
Kobe District Court Infographic
According to reports, Takeshima is 30 years old, and because of the absurdity of his statement in his confession after his arrest, whether his mental state at the time of the crime was criminally responsible has become a point of controversy. Prosecutors acknowledge that the delusions caused by Psychiatric Syndrome have had some effect on Takeshima, but believe that he still retains the ability to suppress criminal impulses. On the other hand, the defense counsel argued that Takeshima was completely dominated by delusions when committing the crime, and lost the ability to control his own actions, claiming that the defendant was not guilty. In response to this case, the main judge Kentaro Iijima read out the verdict on the 4th, "believing that the defendant's delusional influence on it when committing the crime is 'difficult to resist'" and does not have the capacity for criminal responsibility, and pronounced the defendant not guilty.
Photo of Takeshima when he was arrested in 2017
According to the Mainichi Shimbun, Takeshima claimed in his confession that before committing the crime, he heard a woman say to herself, "I want to meet (your) mother and tell her that we are getting married," and heard a woman say the day before the crime: "Come to the shrine." Then Takeshima changed into a dress to visit the local shrine, and when he returned home, he heard a female voice again: "In this world, except for you and me, we are all zombies." According to the report, these are all auditory hallucinations of Takeshima Yeshi.
After hearing the above-mentioned auditory hallucinations, Takeshima believed that in order to marry a woman (in the auditory hallucination), he must first pass the "test", that is, "bring down the zombies", so on July 16, 2017, Takeshima used a metal baseball bat and a kitchen knife to kill his grandparents, and the mother who came forward to stop him was seriously injured. Takeshima then left home and attacked a nearby home, killing a 79-year-old woman and seriously injuring a 69-year-old woman. After seeing the police who rushed to the scene, Takeshima Fled to the local shrine for the first time and was arrested at the shrine.
Takeshima Yeshi kills his grandparents at home (Japanese media photo, 2017)
Takeshima Shrine Arrested at Local Shrine (Japanese Media, 2017)
The Kobe District Court's verdict sparked controversy on the Japanese Internet, with several Japanese netizens arguing that although the defendant suffered from mental illness, it could not be used as a reason for his innocence in killing multiple people. Some netizens criticized, "No matter what the reason, killing (injuring) 5 people was also found not guilty, and the chief judge was the craziest." ”
Some netizens asked rhetorically, "If the spirit is not normal, then killing people is not a crime, what joke?" What did the presiding judge really think? ”
In addition, some netizens whose Yahoo account is certified as a lawyer commented, "Although I am a lawyer, I can't help but think that if my family member is found innocent because he does not have the capacity for criminal responsibility after his family is killed, then I can't accept it at all." ”