The Tokyo High Court on Friday upheld a lower court decision denying a retrial for man sentenced to death for killing two people for insurance money in Saitama Prefecture in 1995 and 1999.
Shigeru Yagi, 65, was also convicted of injuring a third person. He pleaded not guilty during the investigation and at his trial.
According to the original 2008 ruling, Yagi gave a poisoned piece of bread to a 45-year-old man, killed him and abandoned his body in the Tone River in 1995, and got some ¥300 million in insurance money.
He was also found guilty of using cold medicine and liquor to kill another person and injure a third person in 1999.
Yagi filed his petition for retrial in 2009 with the Saitama District Court, but the court turned down the petition in 2010. Later, Yagi's defense counsel filed an appeal with the Tokyo High Court, saying the first man drowned himself in the river.