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.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS