Present Situation of Aum Trials

Von Jiro Nakamura *

I. A String of Aum Incidents Came to Light, Triggered by month and 3 times for the next month (with the proviso, the Metro Sarin Attack however, that one session per month should be from 10 a.m. In the early morning on 20 March 1995, sarin gas was emit- to 5 p.m.) and the both parties accepted it. ted in the Metro cars going past the government district of In general, it would be quite difficult for Japanese attor- Tokyo, capital of Japan. 12 lives were lost and more than neys to run their firms if they accepted such date fixing. 3,700 citizens including passengers and station staff were injured. As the police pursued the investigation of the indis- V. Plea of Not Guilty criminate terror, Chizuo Matsumoto (a.k.a. Shoko Asahara), At trial, Mr. Asahara pleaded and asserted his innocence, founder of the Aum Sinrikyo, and its executives were ar- claiming that he never directed to commit the crimes. The rested on suspicion of murder and other crimes. defense counsel exercised their right of objection against the As the police interrogated those who were involved in the presentation of the investigators’ records of oral statements. case including the accomplices, it turned out that a string of So the court summoned those who had made the oral state- crimes from 1988 including the murder of the Sakamoto ments to take the witness stand. The public prosecutors ex- (attorney at law) family and the Matsumoto Sarin Attack amined them and the defense counsel cross-examined them were committed by Aum Sinrikyo. (See the annexed list 1.) closely to approach the truth of the case. Subsequently Mr. Asahara was, as joint principal in con- spiracy, indicted on 17 counts. The trial started on 24 April VI. The Sentences Given to Mr. Asahara and the Other 1996 and, with 257 trial sessions held, closed by the death Defendants sentence on 27 February 2004. The defense counsel appealed The sentences given to the defendants in the Aum cases are for the reversal of it and the case is now pending at the appel- shown in the annexed list 2. As mentioned above, Mr. Asa- late court. hara was indicted on 17 counts, but the public prosecutors subsequently reduced them to 13 counts to hasten the trial. II. The Investigators’ Response to the Aum Cases Mr. Asahara began to refuse to meet his counsel from the As it turned out that a string of crimes was committed by middle and was sometimes ordered to leave the courtroom Aum Sinrikyo, the majority, stirred up by the excessive news because of his irregular statements at trial. He continued to coverage, started to say, “Put Asahara to death at once!” And ignore the trial. the police, backed up by the majority, came to investigate the Even after the appeal for the reversal of the death sen- Aum Sinrikyo in such ways violating their rights guaranteed tence, he continued to refuse to have a meeting with the 3 under Article 31 (due process of law) of the Constitution. counsels whom he retained. So the counsel had great diffi- culty in filing the statement of the grounds for the appeal. III. The Coexistence of the Defense Counsel Appointed by The counsel is now requesting the court to postpone the time the Defendant and the Court-appointed Defense Counsel limit for filing it and claimed that the court should stop the Mr. Asahara had had a counsel but dismissed just before the criminal procedure because of the mental incapacity of the first trial. To prevent delay, the court appointed 12 counsels defendant. based upon the recommendations of the three bar associations in Tokyo (4 counsels per association). Subsequently the dis- VII. Does Capital Punishment Have Deterrent Effect missed counsel was reappointed and dismissed again. After Against Terrorism? all, 12 court-appointed defense counsels represented Mr. When an indiscriminate terrorist attack is reported and it Asahara. spreads terror and confusion throughout the country, the At the appellate trial 3 different counsels were employed majority will say, “Put the offenders to death so that such and are now in charge of the defense for him. terrorist activities cannot be repeated.” (A recent opinion poll showed that 80 % were for the retention of capital punish- IV. The Defense Policy of the Court-appointed Counsel ment, though the method of the survey had some defect.) The counsel had various opinions on capital punishment, but Underlying such views is the simple belief that severer pun- they agreed that they should devote a lot of time to the thor- ishment has more deterrent effect against crimes and that ough and careful hearings and should approach the truth of capital punishment is the ultimate deterrent. the case. However, it is clear that capital punishment has no deter- Though the public prosecutors demanded that Mr. Asa- rent effect against those who are going to blow themselves hara’s case should be held 8 times per month (they spread up, such as the suicide attacks of the Kamikaze corps during around that without the pace, it would take approximately 40 the World War II and the suicide bombings of Islamic ex- years to conclude the case), the defense counsel opposed it. tremists. It is an honor for them to sacrifice themselves for After all, the court proposed the repetition of 4 times for a the absolute or God, which they considered to be much wor- thier than their own life. Then capital punishment is no more a threat for them. * Attorney at Law, Tokyo.

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ZIS 8/2006 378 Present Situation of Aum Trials ______

In this connection, the executions of capital punishment were resumed in 1993 after the break for 3 years and 4 months in Japan; the three death row inmates were executed on 26 March 1993, another four inmates on 26 November 1994 and others successively. But the resumption was not able to deter the crimes including the above mentioned Metro Sarin Attack that took place two years after. It demonstrates that capital punishment has no deterrent effect.

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Zeitschrift für Internationale Strafrechtsdogmatik 379