SAITAMA (Kyodo) Prosecutors sought the death penalty Wednesday for a 47-year-old man accused of killing a former vice health minister and his wife and attempting to kill the wife of another former vice health minister in Saitama and Tokyo in 2008.
"Nothing but capital punishment is (possible)," prosecutors said after their closing arguments at the Saitama District Court, in which they called the crimes "random serial murders aimed merely at having a sense of accomplishment" and "extremely cruel and heinous."
Takeshi Koizumi, when his Saitama District Court trial opened in November, basically owned up to the charges but pleaded not guilty, claiming he "did not kill people, but demons with evil hearts."