Legal experts and journalists in Japan sometimes forget that defendants in criminal cases are guaranteed the right to remain silent.
Masumi Hayashi, who is charged with murdering four people by poisoning curry at a 1998 community festival in Wakayama, and her lawyers have been harshly criticized for her refusal to speak about the case since her arrest -- not only to investigators but also in court.
Legal experts have urged Hayashi's lawyers to persuade her to tell her version of the events of July 25, 1998, when four people, including two children, died and 63 others became ill after eating curry spiked with arsenic. She is also accused of attempted murder in connection with the victims who fell ill.