This result failed to meet the expectations of Jiangge's mother and some netizens. But in Japan, it can be said that this is not a bad result.
How to sentence the death penalty in Japan?
Japan is extremely cautious about the death penalty, and it is almost impossible for Chen Shifeng's crimes to be sentenced to death in Japan.
In Japanese law, it is possible to be sentenced to death for committing the following crimes: civil strife, inducing Mufti without Sapindus, assisting Mufti without Sapindus, setting fire to existing buildings, exploding, destroying existing buildings, subverting trains, threatening traffic (serious crimes), poisoning waterways, robbery, raping robbers, using explosives, dueling and hijacking airplanes.
Chen Shifeng is guilty of intentional homicide and intimidation and may be sentenced to death.
The death penalty in Japan almost exists in name only, and there are fewer and fewer death penalty cases in recent years. In order to prevent the occurrence of unjust, false and wrong cases, criminal trials in Japan generally last for a long time, even as long as ten or twenty years. For example, 1972 and 1974's _ yuyou murder case took 25 years from the arrest of the criminals to the death penalty. And there are very few death penalty cases in Japan. From 2005 to 20 16, Japan sentenced to death 144 people. Since 20 12, the number of people sentenced to death has been in single digits.
▲ Number of people related to death penalty in Japan from 2005 to 20 16.
And most importantly, the judge should also refer to age, nature, motivation, criminal record, number of victims, social influence and other factors when sentencing. Among them, the number of victims is a very important benchmark to measure sentencing.
Killing more than three people is more likely to be sentenced to death; And killing two people, death penalty, life or fixed-term imprisonment are all possible; If only one person is killed, it is likely to be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment or life. The sentencing standard for a person sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment for murder is more than 5 years and less than 20 years.
On the other hand, Chen Shifeng only killed Jiangge. Therefore, Chen Shifeng may be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment or life imprisonment, and the maximum term of imprisonment is 20 years.
Petition is basically useless for Japanese judges to sentence.
In order to get Chen Shifeng sentenced to death, Jiang Ge's mother launched a petition campaign of "signing the death penalty for Chen Shifeng" in and on the Internet, and collected 4.5 million Japanese signatures.
In court, Jiangge's mother also put forward a petition of 4.5 million people who want to severely punish Chen Shifeng:
Chen has no introspection at all. His family never apologized. I just think he's acting. He only said three words in Chinese, I'm sorry. I don't think he's reflecting. I collected 4.5 million signatures and asked Chen to be sentenced to death. China people want the court to punish them severely.
According to the final sentence of 20 years, the judge did not adopt the opinion of public opinion and sentenced Chen Shifeng to death. Because when Japanese judges judge whether to impose the death penalty, they mainly rely on the case of Yongshan Zefu. This case has the following criteria:
The nature of crime, the form of motive crime, especially the significance of the stubborn and cruel result of killing methods, especially the plot after the number of victims and the emotional society of their families affect the age of prisoners.
Only by combining the above eight factors can criminals be sentenced to death when they have to execute the death penalty. Among them, there is no public opinion (petition).
Nothing doesn't mean nothing, and it doesn't mean nothing. Article 16 of the Japanese Constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to petition: anyone has the right to petition smoothly on matters such as the relief of damages, the recall of civil servants, the formulation, repeal and modification of laws, orders and regulations, and no one can be treated differently because of petitions.
Therefore, Japanese courts often receive petitions demanding severe punishment or commutation of sentences. Jiangge's mother's petition is an example. Japan also stipulates that judges and judges can only make sentencing judgments based on the evidence investigated by the court, and petitions have very limited or no influence on judges.
The reference of Jiangge's mother's petition is the murder of the dark website in Nagoya in 2007.
On August 24th, 2007, three men robbed and kidnapped a 3 1 year-old woman, beat her head with a hammer, strangled her with a rope, and dumped her body in the forest.
Because there was only one victim, the judge thought that the death penalty could not be imposed. The victim's mother, Tomoko Iwatani, launched a petition to sentence criminals to death, and collected more than 330,000 petition signatures.
In the final judgment, Kanda, the principal offender, was sentenced to death in the first instance for robbery and murder, which was executed in June 2065438+2005; Kawasaki Kenji, who surrendered himself, was sentenced to life in the second instance judgment; He Liqing was finally sentenced to death in the first instance, but was sentenced to life in the second instance.
However, regarding this case, I checked the information and found no direct relationship between the petition and the sentence. The two people sentenced to death in the first instance have one thing in common: both have relatively heavy criminal records.
Sentenced to death is also difficult to execute.
Another point is that even if you are sentenced to death in Japan, you will not die easily.
Although Chen Shifeng's statement in court that "I am willing to take this life if I can" seems to be very regretful, even if the judge disregarded the law and fulfilled his wish, it is impossible to execute Chen Shifeng's death sentence soon.
Because Japan's death sentence and execution are separated. After the final judgment of death penalty is made by the Supreme Court, it is also necessary for the Minister of Justice to sign an execution order within six months after the death penalty judgment is issued, and then hand it over to the administrative department for execution. However, in order to avoid being accused of being "heartless" and "cold-blooded", the Minister of Justice is usually very cautious about signing the execution order, and will make an order after finding out all the criminal facts. Even many ministers of justice never signed an execution order during their term of office, and Yoko Uekawa, the current minister of justice, never signed an execution order during his last term.
▲ Number of execution orders signed by the Minister of Justice since August 2008.
Moreover, in order to protect the murderer's right to life and avoid unjust, false and wrongful cases, at any time, as long as the condemned prisoner refuses to accept the judgment and appeals, as long as there is a little possibility of changing the original judgment, the case can enter the retrial procedure. So the time of "six months" will become very uncertain. From the determination of the death penalty to its execution, it may be as long as twenty or thirty years.
For example, Nobuo Oda, who committed a crime in 1966, was arrested in 1967 and sentenced to death in 1970. So far, he has not been executed, and 47 years have passed since he was sentenced to death.
From 2000 to 20 16 17, only 72 people were executed in Japan. By 20 16, there were still 126 people on death row in Japanese prisons who had not been executed.
It is a foregone conclusion that Chen Shifeng was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. Even if Jiangge's mother is not satisfied with the result, as a family member, she can no longer appeal.
Because in Japanese legal proceedings, only the prosecution can appeal against the trial results. Chen Shifeng was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison, which was in line with the expectations of Japanese prosecutors.