The Supreme Court has finalized the death sentence it upheld last month for a 31-year-old man who murdered two women and injured six other people in a 1999 random street attack in Tokyo, judicial officials said Monday, bringing the number of death row inmates to 100.
According to the Justice Ministry, the number of people facing the death penalty who had exhausted all avenues of appeal or had not appealed recently reached 102, but the number dropped to 99 after three were hanged April 27.
The top court's April 19 death sentence for Hiroshi Zota was finalized last Wednesday as he did not file a motion of correction by the deadline.
According to the ruling, Zota randomly attacked passersby with a knife and a hammer in the Ikebukuro area on the morning of Sept. 8, 1999, killing Kazuko Sumiyoshi, 66, and Mami Takahashi, 29, and injuring six others.