Six lay judges and three professional judges at the Sendai District Court on Nov. 25 sentenced a male 19-year-old to death for murdering two people and injuring two others, one of them seriously. This is the second death sentence under the lay judge system introduced in 2009 and the first death sentence against a minor under the system. It is also the first death sentence for a crime committed by a minor since the Hiroshima High Court's death sentence of 2008, imposed on a man who murdered a housewife and her baby daughter in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in 1999 while he was a minor.

The first death sentence under the lay judge system was given by the Yokohama District Court on Nov. 16 to a man who murdered two men, stabbing one of them and beheading the other with an electric saw. The ruling characterized the crime as "relentless, atrocious and inhumane." But on Nov. 1, the lay and professional judges at the Tokyo District Court opted to give a life sentence to a man who killed a female employee of an ear-cleaning shop and her grandmother in view of the fact that he had fallen into despair because of unrequited love. The ruling said the man should think about why he committed the crime and deepen his self-scrutiny for the rest of his life.

Remarks by two of the lay judges at the Sendai court show that the decision was an agonizing one for the lay judges to make. One said: "I was scared of handing down the sentence. I will continue to be tormented throughout my life." The other said: "I did not want to serve as a lay judge. It never occurred to me that capital punishment is such a serious matter. It's tough." To help people know more about capital punishment and have wide discussions on the issue of the death penalty and to improve the lay judge system, as much information as possible should be made public about the trial, including what the judges discussed.