Panel of citizens and professional judges sentences killer to 15 years in first trial under new justice system

This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

Japan's first jury trial since the second world war concluded today with a mixed group of citizens and professional judges convicting a man of murder and sentencing him to 15 years in prison.

The ruling was the first under a new Japanese jury system, a major overhaul of the country's legal framework, that is expected to speed up trials and offer greater transparency.

The jurors expressed a sense of achievement and relief, while welcoming the trial as a positive step towards giving citizens a greater role in society.

The system pairs six citizens with three professional judges, and the nine together decide both guilt and sentencing. All nine are considered judges. Until now, all trials were heard only by professional judges.

The trial in Tokyo district court found 72-year-old Katsuyoshi Fujii guilty of murder. Fuji, who stabbed his 66-year-old neighbour after a quarrel in May, pleaded guilty but his lawyers sought leniency in the sentencing.

Murder carries a maximum penalty of death in Japan, although that is rare in cases involving a single victim.

The presiding judge, Yasuhiro Akiba, said the jury sentenced the defendant to 15 years in prison – one year short of what the prosecution had sought – because the stabbing was not premeditated.

The citizen jurors said it was difficult to decide the sentence but praised the judges, prosecutors and defence for making their arguments easy to follow and avoiding the use of legal jargon.

The sentencing came just four days after the trial opened on Monday, with the new process streamlined to allow the citizen judges to quickly return to their lives. Traditional Japanese trials can take years to reach a conclusion and rely heavily on documents instead of trial testimony.

Japanese juries are expected to hear about 2,000 to 3,000 cases per year, all involving serious crimes such as murder and kidnapping. About 300,000 candidates are being selected randomly from eligible voters nationwide to serve jury duty each year.

Some Japanese are reluctant to serve, in part because they may have to decide on capital punishment in a murder case.

Japan launched a jury trial system in 1928, but dropped it in 1943 as the country plunged into chaos during the second world war. The system was never popular because legal professionals opposed allowing ordinary citizens to decide guilt.