Kobe Man Found Not Guilty of Killing 3, Injuring 2 due to the “normal functioning of his mind hindered”

From Jiji Press

November 4 2021

KOBE – Kobe District Court on Thursday found a 30-year-old man not guilty by reason of insanity of killing three people and injuring two others in Kobe, western Japan, in July 2017.

In a lay judge trial, Presiding Judge Kentaro Iijima recognized that the defendant was in a state of insanity at the time of the incident due to a mental disorder, acquitting him of charges including murder.

“The suspicion cannot be ruled out that he was under the strong influence of a delusion and other factors, with the normal functioning of his mind hindered,” Iijima said.

Public prosecutors had sought an indefinite prison term, claiming that the defendant had a diminished capacity.

The focus of the trial was not on what happened in the incident but on the degree of criminal liability.