Former Japanese Nurse with Autism Gets Indefinite Term in Appeal Trial

From Jiji

June 19 2024

TOKYO – Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling on Wednesday that sentenced a 37-year-old former nurse to an indefinite prison term for murdering three patients at a hospital in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2016. 

Presiding Judge Toru Miura, noting that the defendant, Ayumi Kuboki, had autistic spectrum disorder at the time, said, “The anxiety and fear she felt during nursing work were so great that she felt physically unwell.” 

Public prosecutors claimed that Kuboki committed indiscriminate murders deserving the death penalty. But Miura said there is not an error in the lower court judgment that took the possibility of reform into consideration.

The defense said that Kuboki had diminished capacity at the time and that there is a factual error in the lower court ruling that found her fully competent to take criminal responsibility.

Judge Miura said the lower court ruling is not unreasonable. “The consequences of killing the three are grave and vicious,” he said.