Life term upheld for man after 2017 murder of 9-year-old Vietnamese girl in Chiba

A Japanese court upheld Tuesday a life sentence for a man over the 2017 murder of a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl, rejecting the defense claim that DNA evidence used to convict him should be excluded as it was collected through illegal means.
March 23, 2021 | 17:55
japan court hears report on adn results in murder of vietnamese third grade girl Japan court hears report on ADN results in murder of Vietnamese third grade girl
vietnamese parents continue seeking justice for murdered child in japan Vietnamese parents continue seeking justice for murdered child in Japan
vietnamese girls murder gets life sentence Vietnamese girl’s murder gets life sentence
Death penalty upheld for man after 2017 murder of 9 year-old Vietnamese girl in Chiba

Yasumasa Shibuya has received life imprisonment for murdering a Vietnamese girl in March 2017. Photo by Reuters

The Tokyo High Court rejected an appeal by Yasumasa Shibuya, the 49-year-old former head of a parents group at Mutsumi Daini Elementary School in Matsudo near Tokyo, over the murder of Le Thi Nhat Linh, who was a third-grader at the school.

Presiding Judge Masahiro Hiraki said investigators "illegally confiscated" the DNA evidence without a search warrant and criticized them for being "lazy."

But he said the evidence was still admissible as the illegitimacy was not so significant and the need to obtain a sample of Shibuya's DNA was necessary. There was no violation of third-party rights as a result of collecting the sample, the judge added.

The high court also rejected an appeal by prosecutors, who sought the death penalty for Shibuya, saying the murder was not premeditated.

According to the Chiba District Court ruling in July 2018, Shibuya abducted Linh while she was on her way to school on March 24, 2017. He then went on to sexually assault and strangle her before abandoning her body near a drainage ditch in the city of Abiko, Chiba Prefecture, two days later.

The district court sentenced Shibuya to life in prison on the basis that his DNA was found on the victim's body, while blood found in his car contained the girl's DNA.

But in an appeal trial that began in September 2019, the defense team argued cigarette butts used for DNA profiling should have been inadmissible as they were obtained without a search warrant from a garbage collection site at the condo where Shibuya lived.

They asked that the sentence be quashed and Shibuya acquitted.

Prosecutors had countered that the investigation method was legal as the cigarette butts had been discarded and were found among the defendant's garbage at an unlocked collection site.

In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no issue with police collecting garbage from a collection point on a public road as the owner had abandoned possession of it.

french schoolgirl admits making up story leading to the beheading of teacher French schoolgirl admits making up story leading to the beheading of teacher

Before the teacher's murder last year, the French schoolgirl confessed to spreading misleading information about him.

74000 sign petition calling for justice for french murdered rooster 74,000 sign petition calling for justice for French murdered rooster

A French petition signed by 74,000 people is demanding justice for the murder of a rooster named Marcel, by a neighbor who was sick of ...

george floyd death an act of murder police across us speak out George Floyd death: An act of murder - police across US speak out

Police nationwide, in unequivocal and unprecedented language, have condemned the actions of Minneapolis police in the custody death of a handcuffed black man who cried ...

Phiên bản di động