Prosecutors used video Monday to re-enact how they allege an accused killer mutilated his victim, prompting defense lawyers to denounce the tactic because it could cast the defendant in a bad light.
The prosecutors used a mannequin in the re-enactment screened during a Tokyo District Court trial session for Takanori Hoshijima, 34.
They did so "apparently with an eye on the introduction of the citizen judge system in May, but it is not an appropriate way to question a defendant," Hoshijima's lawyers said in a statement.
Hoshijima is accused of killing a 23-year-old woman last April in Tokyo during a sexual assault, mutilating her body and dumping the body parts. He has pleaded guilty.
During the trial, the prosecutors reproduced the crime scene in video footage while presenting photos of the victim's actual body parts on a screen so courtroom spectators could see them.
"We introduced such methods so (the court attendants) could see (for themselves how the crime was carried out), prior to the introduction of the lay judge system," a senior prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office said.