Tea&Biscuits Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6590895.stm Was her Father wrong for taking the £450K from the accused's friend - did this in someway thwart the verdict? Lucie's Mum was disgusted by her ex taking the money and I have to say that I am also slightly shocked that he would have taken it also?? What do you all think? Would you have taken the money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 My understanding is that this wasn't a blood money payment which has strict legal rules in Japan - please remember cultures are complex in the way they deal with death. A legal blood money payment is associated with a guilty plea and is used to mitigate the sentence. Joji Obara never pleaded guilty and as he was found not guilty there was no sentence to mitigate. The Japanese legal system is sophisticated enough to understand this - so if T&B's main point is to ask if this affected the verdict then I think the answer is no. There are issues about the morality, rather than the legality of the payment - it depends how he uses the money - I know people who have used compensation money etc for children killed in Israel, etc to create charities that do real worth in reconciliation etc - so it isn't the payment as how he will use it that is the issue to me. There is then the sad fact the murder has broken up the marriage and whether the father had a right to the money - this links into the above - if he uses it selfishly I disapprove. The final point though isn't the Japanese judicial system, but its investigative system. Something like 98% of cases that come to court in Japan are guilty pleas with confessions. That is how the police system works - they work to get the perpetrator to confess. This can cause terrible miscarriages of justice when the vunerable are coerced into confessing to crimes they didn't commit - and because the police do not have a strong investigative arm which independently finds/verifies the truth they are weak at solving crimes where no one confesses. The fact that Joji Obara didn't confess to the crime - while he did to others is noteworthy. It looks like he lived in a dismal world of drugs and abuse and was a monster within that world - he says he gave her drugs and left her - and a person now dead was responsible to what happened to her. The crime bosses or whatever word you want to use have admitted complicity and made an informal blood payment - it wasn't Joji Obara who paid it, but an associate. I don't know what to make of it. Maybe Obara is lying and did murder her - maybe he isn't - but his associates, and him, admit that they were connected with what happened hence the payment. The fact that the police has failed to get to the bottom of it is an inditement of their system - the hugely complex social relations of Japan are still very opaque to the outside world, but this case has shown the UK a little of what it can be like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pragmatopian Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 Was her Father wrong for taking the £450K from the accused's friend[?] Yes. [D]id this in someway thwart the verdict? No. Would you have taken the money? No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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