SAITAMA (Kyodo) The death sentence for serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, 43, who was convicted of killing four girls in 1988 and 1989, is final now that the Supreme Court has rejected an objection filed by his counsel over a technical detail.
The defense counsel had asked the top court to correct its ruling last month upholding the death sentence issued by a lower court.
The top court's four-justice No. 3 petty bench agreed unanimously to reject the objection, in which the defense had asked the Supreme Court to correct the ruling it issued last month, bringing an end to the 43-year-old Miyazaki's 16-year trial process.
In a letter to Kyodo News just before the Jan. 17 Supreme Court ruling, Miyazaki maintained his innocence on grounds of insanity, and said he thinks he "did a good thing."
Throughout the trials, he did not apologize for the slayings.
The Code of Criminal Procedure allows a defendant or prosecutors to file an objection against a Supreme Court decision but limits its scope to minor points, including wording errors. The top court has never changed its decision on focal points.
The four justices agreed in their decision that "no errors were found in the ruling."
The defense team did not reveal which points they wanted corrected.
On Jan. 17, the top court ruled that an extreme character disorder could be found in the defendant, but that he was not suffering from any mental disorder that would make him unable to bear criminal responsibility.
The court said Miyazaki abducted and killed the four girls in Tokyo and neighboring Saitama Prefecture "to satisfy his own sexual desire and appetite to own videotapes with footage of corpses."