The Nagoya High Court on May 28 turned down the latest request for a retrial by Masaru Okunishi, an 88-year-old man on death row for the 1961 fatal poisoning of five women in Nabari, Mie Prefecture. The court cited a pro forma reason for rejecting his eighth retrial petition. Courts' decisions on the case have changed twice in the decades-long history of the trial and retrial petitions. At one point, the high court itself hinted at the possibility that the crime might have been committed by a different person.

It is not far-fetched to say the high court ignored the principle of in dubio pro reo ("when in doubt, for the accused"). One is innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

The murders took place on March 28, 1961. At a community meeting in Nabari that evening, 17 women who drank white wine were poisoned. Five of them, including both Okunishi's wife and girlfriend, died. Okunishi initially confessed that he had laced the wine with a pesticide to end a love triangle, but he retracted his confession before being indicted.