Man sentenced to death for 2016 Japan care home mass killing

A Japanese court on Monday ordered a death sentence to a man who killed 19 disabled people at a care home near Tokyo in 2016, the worst mass murder in post-war Japan.
The Yokohama District Court sentenced Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the care facility in the city of Sagamihara, to death for the killings and for injuring 26 others, Kyodo News reported.
“The grave consequence was incomparable to other incidents with 19 lives being taken,” Presiding Judge Kiyoshi Aonuma said, and Kyodo reported.
During hearings at the court, Uematsu had admitted to the killings and claimed those with disabilities who are unable to communicate well bring misfortune.
The defence team argued the 30-year-old man was mentally incompetent and should not be held criminally responsible for the actions, while prosecutors had sought the death sentence for him, the report said.
Uematsu has already said he would not appeal the ruling.
The defence claimed his start of using marijuana in 2015 has dramatically changed his personality, causing his mental disorder and the attack, according to Kyodo.
Japan is one of the few industrialised countries along with the United States that still administer capital punishment.
dpa/NAN.