Kyoto Animation arsonist withdraws appeal, clearing death sentence to proceed

Four and a half years after fire that killed 36 people, trial comes to an official close.

The trial of Shinji Aoba, the arsonist who set the fire at Kyoto Animation in July of 2019, might seem like it should have been an open-and-shut case. Aoba was apprehended at the scene of the crime and has admitted to deliberately setting the fire which killed 36 people.

But the due process of the legal system takes time, and in Aoba’s case it’s taken a very long time. Having suffered severe burns himself in the incident, it wasn’t until nearly four months later that Aoba recovered his ability to speak, which was a legal prerequisite for him to begin being questioned and officially placed under arrest, which didn’t happen until almost a year after the attack. Even then, the trial couldn’t start until Aoba’s psychological examination was completed, which took roughly another half year. The trial, during which Aoba showed little remorse, largely focused on whether Aoba’s mental condition made him fully culpable for the crime. In January of 2024, four and a half years after the attack, a verdict was finally handed down, with judges in Kyoto district court sentencing the now 46-year-old Aoba to death by hanging, but even that wasn’t the end of the legal battle, as Aoba’s defense lawyer swiftly filed an appeal with the Osaka supreme court to block the sentence.

Now though, almost exactly one year after the appeal was filed, Aoba himself has withdrawn it, bringing the trial to an official close.

The removal of the appeal comes during the lengthiest lull in executions in Japan in several decades. Between 1993 and 2022, at least one criminal was executed in Japan every year except for 2011 and 2020, sometimes with as many as 15 death sentences being carried out in a single calendar year. Presently, though, Japan’s last execution took place nearly two and a half years ago, in July of 2022.

However, the withdrawal of Aoba’s appeal does not trigger a court reevaluation of his sentencing, so it doesn’t appear to be a ploy to secure a lesser punishment, or at least not an advisable one. There is precedent in Japan of defense attorneys reinstating appeals that were withdrawn directly by convicted defendants themselves, but as of this writing Aoba’s lawyer has not done so, and there is currently no legal roadblock to his execution.

Source: NHK News Web via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Wikipedia/L26
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