A Japanese businessman accused of killing his wife in Los Angeles, California, in 1981 can be prosecuted in a US court despite being cleared of the murder in his home country, a judge ruled on Friday.
Kazuyoshi Miura — who has been dubbed the “Japanese OJ Simpson” — is charged with murder and conspiracy in the death of his 28-year-old wife, Kazumi, who was shot in the head in downtown Los Angeles in November 1981.
Lawyers for Miura, 61, who was arrested during a visit to the US territory of Saipan in February, had argued he could not be tried for murder in the US because of “double jeopardy” rules.
Miura was cleared of his wife’s killing by a court in Japan in 1998 following a marathon legal saga.
However, California Superior Court Judge Steven Van Sicklen found that because Miura was never charged or tried with conspiracy to commit murder in Japan, he could be prosecuted on that charge in the US.
“There is no evidence of a double jeopardy bar to the present prosecution on the charge of conspiracy, that charge must stand and the People may go forward with their prosecution on that charge,” he ruled.
However Miura cannot be tried on a specific count of murder, Van Sicklen ruled.
After the ruling both defense lawyers and prosecutors claimed victory, with Miura’s attorney Mark Geragos saying he was pleased to have had the murder charge against his client dismissed.
“I don’t think by any means is it over, and to the extent that he’s not going to be charged with murder and cannot be prosecuted for murder, we’re gratified [by] that,” Geragos said.
Prosecutors said the charge of conspiracy to commit murder carries the same sentence as a first-degree murder charge — 25 years to life in prison — and did not rule out an appeal of the judge’s decision to strike the murder charge.
“We’re going to be looking over our options,” said Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. “Right now, we’re concentrating on getting Mr. Miura back here, getting him into court in Los Angeles and getting this case into the proper forum, which is where this crime occurred.”
Miura’s wife died in hospital in Japan in 1982, just over a year after the shooting. Miura, who was shot in the leg in the same incident, claimed at the time that he and his wife had been attacked by robbers. However. it was later revealed he had collected hundreds of thousand dollars in life insurance following the killing.
He was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Japan in 1994. But that verdict was overturned by the Tokyo High Court in 1998 on the grounds that the gunman had never been identified.
Los Angeles prosecutors alleged Miura “solicited five different people to murder his wife,” including the person who actually shot her.
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