Japanese Sentenced to Death for School Slaughter

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, August 28, 2003

Japanese Sentenced to Death for School Slaughter

A Japanese man who committed a slaughter in an elementary school two years ago was sentenced to death on Thursday.

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A Japanese man who committed a slaughter in an elementary school two years ago was sentenced to death on Thursday.

The Osaka District Court dismissed lawyers statement that Mamoru Takuma, 39, was not normal consciously when committing the crime.

"He has a self-centered, very warped personality. But there is no influence of any mental illness and he had sufficient mental competency to be held responsible for the crime," Kyodo News quoted the judge as saying.

Takuma shouted he had his last words before the sentence was made but was dragged out of the court. "Let me say something for the last time, as I will be executed anyway," he said, according to Kyodo.

In one of Japan's bloodiest school massacre on June 8, 2001, Takuma stabbed to death seven school girls and one boy, left 13 other children and two teachers injured at an elementary school inIkeda City, Osaka.

The court said he made the killing just to vent his economic and social frustration, according to Kyodo.

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