Death penalty to 18-year-old defendant

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Supreme court sentenced death penalty to a defendant who was 18 years and 1 month old when he committed murder of an innocent young mother and her baby.  He is the youngest in those who was sentenced capital punishment in history of Japan.  The court said in the judgment that his crime was extremely cruel and inhuman, and the feeling of family of the victim was terribly damaged.   According to case law in Japan, the number of victims is one of nine factors to be taken into consideration when the court is facing with potential capital punishment case and the victim's number of two has been considered on the borderline.  Also, the age of the defendant is critical to avoid the penalty, which means the younger the defendant is, the more possibility he/she will go straight in the future.  However, the court did not directly answer these material questions in the judgment.      
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Japan is one of a few countries in the world which permits death penalty in extremely inhumane case, like some of US states  However, we cannot help admitting that it is really difficult to draw a line between death penalty cases and life sentence ones.  On the other hand, Japan introduced citizen judge system a couple years ago.  According to recent survey, only 25% of normal citizen thought the punishment should be lightened when the criminal was under 20 years old though more than 90% judges did.  In my opinion, Japan still need capital punishment considering the people's common sense, but I'm not confident to make a decision if I would be chosen as a member of citizen judges.