The Tokyo High Court on Friday upheld the death penalty for a former Chinese graduate student in Ibaraki Prefecture who murdered a Chinese woman and her husband after she spurned his advances.
Presiding Judge Yu Shiraki said that despite the remorse shown by the accused, Xue Song, a 30-year-old former graduate student at the University of Tsukuba, he should hang for his "inhumane" act.
At the Saitama District Court, Xue's lawyer had argued that his rejection by the woman had left him in despair, adding that he was mentally disturbed at the time he committed the crime.
The high court upheld the district court's ruling that Xue was fully capable of assuming responsibility for his actions.
Xue fatally stabbed Xu Xin, 29, and her husband, Gu Jingqi, 39, in a parking lot in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, on Sept. 22, 2000, with a survival knife.
Gu, also Chinese, worked for a Japanese firm.