Goto Ryoji
Supreme Court upholds gangster's death penalty for slayings
The Japan Times: Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007
Kyodo News
The Supreme Court upheld the death penalty Friday for a former gangster who killed two people in two separate cases in 2000.
Since defendant Ryoji Goto, 49, confessed in October 2005 to his involvement in three other murders after he appealed to the final court against a lower court-issued death sentence for the two murder cases, his lawyers have demanded he be retried.
The top court's 2nd petty bench dismissed his appeal, finalizing the death sentence.
According to the lower court ruling, Goto, a former senior member of an underworld syndicate, conspired with another former gangster who has been imprisoned for life, in killing a 33-year-old male acquaintance by dumping him in a river in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, in July 2000.
In August that year, Goto conspired with five others to confine four people, including a 24-year-old woman, in an apartment in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, due to trouble within the gang. He then killed the woman by injecting her with a large amount of stimulants and injured the other three.
Of the three cases for which Goto filed a petition with the Ibaraki Prefectural Police, one in which a 67-year-old company president was killed for insurance money has been confirmed and backed up by evidence. Goto was subsequently indicted in the case in February, but the other two remain unconfirmed.
The murder-for-insurance case occurred between the two incidents for which Goto was sentenced to death, leading his lawyers to say that he should therefore be retried.
Aside from Goto, three family members of the victim have been sentenced from 13 to 15 years in prison.
Ex-gang boss loses bid to escape gallows
09/29/2007
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence for a former gang leader convicted in two separate murders in 2000, finalizing the state's decision to execute Ryoji Goto, 49.
In rejecting Goto's appeal, Presiding Justice Osamu Tsuno of the top court's Second Petty Bench ruled that the accused bore extremely grave responsibility in the two slayings. He said the court had no choice but to uphold the death sentences handed down by lower courts.
According to the ruling, Goto bound a male acquaintance's hands together in July 2000 and tossed the man into a river from a bridge in Mito, where the victim drowned.
Then on Aug. 20 that year, Goto injected four people with amphetamines at a friend's home in Utsunomiya, which resulted in the death of a 24-year-old woman, a restaurant worker.
Goto also stabbed the other three in the chest with scissors.
Goto, a former crime group boss, was sentenced to death in February 2003 by the Utsunomiya District Court in connection with two murder cases.
His appeal was rejected by the Tokyo High Court in July 2004.
After he was sentenced to death by lower courts, Goto confessed to his involvement in three other slayings in a letter he gave to his lawyer to give to police in October 2005.
Based on Goto's confession, the Ibaraki prefectural police indicted him in one of the three cases in February this year. The case concerned the death of a 67-year-old man to obtain insurance money.
Four other people, including three of the victim's family members, were also indicted in the case.
Goto's alleged involvement in a third murder case is to be tried at the Mito District Court.
No matter what the court decides in the third case, Goto is destined to be hanged.(IHT/Asahi: September 29,2007)
★２００７年（平成１９年)９月２８日、最高裁第２小法廷で監禁した女性に高濃度の覚醒剤を注射して死亡させるなど、平成１２年に水戸・宇都宮両市で男女５人を殺傷したなどとして、強盗致死や殺人などの罪に問われた元暴力団幹部、後藤良次被告（４９歳）の判決があった。津野修裁判長は「極めて悪質で動機に酌量の余地はない」として、後藤被告の上告を棄却した。１、２審の死刑判決が確定する。津野裁判長は「５人の被害者のうち２人の生命を奪い、３人に重傷を負わせたという結果は重大」と述べた。その上で、「１人の死亡は確定的殺意に基づくものではないことなど、被告人のために酌むべき事情を十分に考慮しても、被告人の罪責は重大で、死刑を是認せざるを得ない」とした。１、２審判決によると、後藤被告は平成１２年８月、宇都宮市内のマンションに男女４人を監禁。小林潤美（２４歳）に覚醒剤を注射して死亡させたほか、３人に灯油をかけて火をつけてけがを負わせ、乗用車などを奪った。また、同年７月には知人の斎藤正二（３３歳）の手足を縛って水戸市内の那珂川に投げ込んで殺害した。後藤被告は１７年、これら事件のほかにも３件の殺人に関与したとの上申書を茨城県警に送付。このうち１件の殺人事件で殺人罪で起訴され、水戸地裁で公判前整理手続きが行われている。
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