Japan's Death Sentence

Did you know that in Japan, when someone is sentenced to death, that that person is not given an actual date of execution? One man who currently sits in prison on death row is aged 70 something and has been on death row for over 40 years. Can you believe it? So in Japan, one could be on death row all his life and still not even have an actual day of execution but the person could end up dyeing of natural causes instead of an actual execution. The accused only gets told on the morning of his execution that he will be executed on that day.

Furthermore, did you know that if and when someone does have his day, he is lead into a room, sat down on a chair with a trap door underneath. A black cloth or bag is placed over his head and behind him is a room with three men sitting each with his hand on a lever. A signal is given and they all pull their own lever down but listen to this, not one of them knows who is actually responsible for causing the death of the deceased because only one of them has his lever attached to the trap door. Imagine that, not knowing whether you were responsible or not for causing the death of someone?

When one hears news like this, one wonders if someone who has been on death row for so long hasn’t suffered enough just wondering all the time when he is going to be executed. It has been said that these guys actually go insane just sitting there all those years waiting, wondering, thinking and agonizing. Ouch! This is not nice news at all.

I got this info from listening to BBC World News.