The widow of a security guard shot dead in the 2018 attack on the Okuda police box told a retrial on Tuesday that she wants the defendant to live and atone, urging lay judges to reject the death penalty her own daughter is seeking.
The hearing at the retrial — a 差し戻し審 (sashimodoshi-shin), a case sent back after an earlier ruling was overturned — was the 12th in the proceedings against Keita Shimazu, FNN Prime Online reported. The woman, wife of guard Shinichi Nakamura, testified as a witness for the defense.
She has exchanged letters and met with Shimazu about 15 times since the attack. Through those meetings she came to feel that he had begun to face what he did, she told the court.
“I want him to live and atone. If he is sentenced to death he will die before he can atone. I will never allow that. To live, face the crime, agonize and keep thinking — that is the extreme penalty I seek.”the widow told the lay judges, wife of Shinichi Nakamura
Shimazu took off his glasses and wiped away tears as he listened, FNN Prime Online reported. At the end of her testimony she turned toward him and spoke to him directly.
“You are a good boy, a kind boy. I want to keep meeting you. Won't you return to who you were?”she said, wife of Shinichi Nakamura
Shimazu covered his face with both hands and wept.
'Not excused because of ASD'
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, she was harsh about the shooting itself. She said Shimazu's autism spectrum disorder did not excuse it, and that he should carry suffering for the rest of his life.
“Is it all right to shoot someone with a pistol? Of course it isn't. It is never excused just because of ASD. He will carry the pain and hardship for his whole life, so he has to suffer as long, or longer, than we have. That is why I say, live and atone.”she told a press conference, wife of Shinichi Nakamura
The victims' families are not of one mind. Nakamura's daughter also took the stand on Tuesday and said she finds life harder now than at the time of the attack.
“I can never forgive him, no matter how he is rehabilitated.”she told the court, Nakamura's daughter
Statements from the wife and son of Kenichi Inaizumi, the police inspector killed at the Okuda police box, were also read out. Both called for the death penalty.
Prosecutors are due to give their sentencing demand at the next hearing on Thursday.