A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio in 2019 which killed 36 people and injured dozens more.
The incident, one of Japan’s deadliest in recent decades, killed mostly young artists and shocked the anime world.
Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to the attack but his lawyers had sought a lighter sentence on grounds of “mental incompetence”.
Judges rejected this however, ruling that Aoba knew what he was doing.
“I have determined that the defendant was not mentally insane or weak at the time of the crime,” Chief Judge Masuda said on Thursday at Kyoto District Court.
Huh, I swear I was always told that America was the only modern Democratic country to still use the death sentence. It’s a “fact” that people bring up whenever there is a high-profile death-row case, like right now.
The only modern *Western country
To be honest, I am genuinely surprised Japan has a death penalty.
That was the point of my comment as well.
To be fair, it’s quite generous to call a political system based on a 1700s document “modern”…
That’s a peculiar statement, considering the U.S. is essentially the most recent major nation (and one of very few) to be formed and grown, about as far from the intense pressures of previously established cultural or governmental influences (both from within, or from surrounding territories) as you can get, without leaving the planet.
…If that’s not considered relatively modern when compared to the rest of the world, what is?
Which isn’t saying much at all since all other major nations are at least a thousand years old.
What IS saying a lot, though, is that the US constitution is the oldest national constitution still in effect bar none.
Bullshit. The US is profoundly influenced by Christian norms and traditions for better and especially for worse. It’s one of the most conservative countries in the West both politically and culturally.
Scandinavia, for example 🤷
That’s a particular statement, considering the US has the oldest democratic constitution in the world.
In terms of countries it absolutely is
Is it really, though?
Most modern countries don’t consider dissent terrorism, most modern countries don’t have mass shootings every week if not every day and in most countries, the color of your skin doesn’t determine whether you’re likely to survive a traffic stop.
“Modern” doesn’t mean “something I like”, it means it was created recently. So yes, it really is modern.
No, it means that it functions in modern ways. The US constitution is the oldest one in the world still in use and US politics and culture are both heavily influenced by bronze age myths aka Abrahamic religion.
That’s probably the most ridiculous strawman I’ve seen in 2024, well done!
Atlanta isn’t a country, which ones are you talking about?
Atlanta is far from the only place in the US that fits that description.