More lay judge trials are making use of fully recorded interrogations ever since police adopted new guidelines to avoid coerced confessions, the National Police Agency said Thursday. In fiscal 2016 ended in March, 2,324 cases subject to such trials had complete recordings of the interrogations, ...
Prosecutors indicted two men Friday on suspicion of intimidating lay judges during the trial of a senior member of a yakuza crime syndicate in the first such charges since Japan's lay judge system was introduced in 2009. The two are Toshimi Kusumoto, a former gang ...
A trial involving a senior member of a crime syndicate may be halted after two men are held for menacing lay judges.
Police arrested two men Friday on suspicion of approaching lay judges during the trial of a senior member of a crime syndicate, the first such arrests since Japan's lay judge system was introduced in 2009. Kimikazu Nakamura, 41, and Toshimi Kusumoto, 40, allegedly made comments ...
Lay judges involved in the trial of a senior yakuza have been approached by someone believed to be associated with the defendant, sources said Monday. According to the sources, the person in question said something like "I'm counting on you" to the lay judges after ...
The executions of two death row inmates on Friday was a blow to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, which only last week reiterated a call for a moratorium on hangings and for a national debate on the matter. In a position paper released on ...
At least two of the commemorative badges given to people who served as lay judges were posted on the Yahoo Auction website and fetched around ¥6,000 each, it was learned Thursday. The Supreme Court has released a statement on the matter, saying: "It is our ...
The government approves bills to introduce a plea bargaining system, expand the scope of wiretapping and obligate police and prosecutors to record interrogations.
Japan's Supreme Court decision to reduce the prison terms of a couple convicted of fatally abusing their daughter highlights the difficulty in balancing the need, on one hand, to have ordinary citizens' views reflected in criminal trials through their participation as lay judges and, ...
At 84, Chihiro Isa hopes to see two things in his lifetime: the jury system reinstated in Japan and U.S. forces gone from Okinawa.
Nearly 50,000 people have participated as principal or alternate lay judges in criminal trials under the system introduced five years ago, the Supreme Court said. The total stood at 49,434 as of March 31, comprising 36,837 principal lay judges and 12,597 supplementary judges, who serve ...
As Japan's lay judge system turns 5 years old, the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council is considering excluding citizens from the duty of serving as lay judges when trials are expected to last more than a year.
