Japan's O.J., Miura, beats the rap after 15yrs

[Taro Toporific]

Miura derides prosecutors, but says he feels no anger
"I blame the media for fanning the flames. The real killer is still out there. "
Miura finally cleared in slaying
A high-profile 15-year legal battle is over. The Supreme Court ...finalize[d] the acquittal of Kazuyoshi Miura, a former trading company president charged with the much-publicized shooting of his wife in Los Angeles in 1981.

[Marvin Feltcher]

My personal belief is that Miura, like OJ, bumped off his missus.
Unlike OJ, who escaped despite overwhelming evidence because he was able to play the race card (with support from a race he seemed to have done a hell of a lot to ignore before his arrest), there was never enough material evidence to rightfully convict Miura.
His district court conviction was a sham and so were subsequent fraud convictions, simply because there was no proof that he had done what he was accused of doing.
This guy was convicted with the court saying that somebody else had helped him, but then the court admitted it had absolutely no idea who the other party could have been and could not prove this mysterious other party even existed. It was pure speculation, but enough to send Miura to jail. (Miura was probably convicted for murder because he had a legitimate conviction for the attempted murder of his wife a few months before the shooting that ultimately led to her death).
Too often in Japanese justice you're guilty till proven innocent. Everything sure pointed to Miura having killed his wife (or at least arranged for her murder), but if it couldn't be proved, he should have gone free (as it eventually turned out).
I wonder how many people are incarcerated in Japanese jails for crimes they haven't committed. I also wonder whether Miura and OJ will ever be able to find out who really killed their wives.

[Taro Toporific]

My personal belief is that Miura, like OJ, bumped off his missus.
Unlike OJ, who escaped despite overwhelming evidence because he was able to play the race card (with support from a race he seemed to have done a hell of a lot to ignore before his arrest), there was never enough material evidence to rightfully convict Miura.....

[floatl]

[/floatl]
U.S. police arrest Japanese man over 1981 murder of wife in Los Angeles
Sunday, February 24, 2008 at 06:58 EST
The Los Angeles Police Department announced Saturday the arrest of Kazuyoshi Miura, a Japanese businessman who has been acquitted in Japan of the fatal shooting of his wife in Los Angeles in 1981, on suspicion of murdering her. The LAPD said the arrest of Miura, 60, was made in Saipan, a commonwealth territory of the United States, on Friday afternoon. The Los Angeles Times earlier reported the arrest on its website, saying Miura could now face trial in Los Angeles...more...

[Greji]

U.S. police arrest Japanese man over 1981 murder of wife in Los Angeles

I was watching the report on Asahi TV and they had the usually talking heads saying the usual shit and speculating. One of them made the absolutely amazing statement of "You know that the US Military had the incident in Okinawa, you don't think the US's timing for this arrest is connected, do you?"

Sure! Okinawa and Saipan are Pacific Islands, that makes it a direct connection. Do we actually need these dingalings for news?

[Behan]

It seems like people in the media are saying that since he was acquitted in Japan that he shouldn't be tried in US courts for a murder that was committed in the US.
But I might be reading it wrong as my Japanese isn't that good.
As there is no statute of limitations for murder there, he was taking a big risk of getting arrested by going to Saipan.

[Greji]

It seems like people in the media are saying that since he was acquitted in Japan that he shouldn't be tried in US courts for a murder that was committed in the US.

TIJ and he is Japanese. Any further questions about the way the media will approach the case?

[Behan]

Sounds like extraterritoriality.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Sounds like extraterritoriality.

By who and in what way?

[IkemenTommy]

I bet that this will be discussed all over on TV and beat out the Aegis accident as the top story this week. Similar to how the gyoza fiasco and the Koda Kumi incident were quickly forgotten and the public moved on.

[Iraira]

I bet that this will be discussed all over on TV and beat out the Aegis accident as the top story this week. Similar to how the gyoza fiasco and the Koda Kumi incident were quickly forgotten and the public moved on.

The old attention span isn't what is used to.....wait a minute...what's this?

[Mulboyne]

Here he is working as a judge at an AV Queen contest held in Roppongi last October. I posted a picture from this event before here without noticing him in the background.

[Greji]

Here he is working as a judge at an AV Queen contest held in Roppongi last October. I posted a picture from this event before here without noticing him in the background.

What background?

[TennoChinko]

I heard that Miura and his comatose wife were flown from Los Angeles to Yokota Air Base at US Government expense on a military flight. And, it was assumed this was due to to some sort of sympathy on the part of the USG. On television the other day, Miura or his spokesman seemed to indicate that this flight was due to Miura's connections with someone highly-placed in the US military and/or US Government. Has anyone else heard this claim? Regardless, it's very irregular to be allowed passage on a military flight...

[Greji]

I heard that Miura and his comatose wife were flown from Los Angeles to Yokota Air Base at US Government expense on a military flight. And, it was assumed this was due to to some sort of sympathy on the part of the USG. On television the other day, Miura or his spokesman seemed to indicate that this flight was due to Miura's connections with someone highly-placed in the US military and/or US Government. Has anyone else heard this claim? Regardless, it's very irregular to be allowed passage on a military flight...

That occurred and it was a humanitarian operation that the military frequently does, more so than alledgedly raping 14 year olds.

Miura has, nor had any connections with the US Military serious enough to mention beyond the theorists wanting to paint the military in a bad light. A couple of my USAF colleagues and my own people were involved in that operation.

I have no doubt that J-TV speculated that way. When the case first occurred it initially was covered as crime ridden America claiming another poor J-person. Then there was a slant that the LA police were harassing the poor grieved J-husband. It was a while before they begin to speculate that he may have actually popped a cap in her ass, or hired someone to do it.

Some of these news services and their announcers are completely out in left field as to what is reality, like the guy from Asahi TV speculating that this could be retribution by the US against Japan because of the Okinawa incident.

[halfnip]

Some of these news services and their announcers are completely out in left field as to what is reality, like the guy from Asahi TV speculating that this could be retribution by the US against Japan because of the Okinawa incident.

God, I HATE that guy.......

[maraboutslim]

As i recall, he's never been charged with killing his wife before, right? the case in japan was for offering to hire someone (his "actress" lover) to kill his wife in order to collect the insurance money. this offer supposedly took place like three months before she was actually killed (and wasn't related to the actual killing).

One assumes the u.s. will charge him in regards to the actual murder in los angeles.

[Mulboyne]

As i recall, he's never been charged with killing his wife before, right? the case in japan was for offering to hire someone (his "actress" lover) to kill his wife in order to collect the insurance money. this offer supposedly took place like three months before she was actually killed (and wasn't related to the actual killing).

One assumes the u.s. will charge him in regards to the actual murder in los angeles.

It doesn't seem to matter although the last comment in the following piece is interesting:

Yomiuri: Double jeopardy ban doesn't cross borders

The arrest in Saipan of a former president of a trading firm who was acquitted in Japan of murdering his wife 27 years ago was possible because the principle of prohibition against double jeopardy does not apply when a person is arrested on the same charge in two countries. Kazuyoshi Miura, 60, who was taken into custody Friday, may be tried in the United States on the same charge despite the first-instance guilty ruling against him being vacated by the courts of second and final instance in Japan. "The United States has sovereign authority in the United States," said Toyo Atsumi, a professor at Kyoto Sangyo University and an expert in criminal procedures in both countries. "Even if a person is acquitted by the Supreme Court in Japan, it doesn't prevent an arrest warrant being served or the person being tried in the United States." Despite the passage of more than a quarter of a century since Miura's wife, Kazumi, was fatally shot in Los Angeles, there is no statute of limitations in the United States for cases of murder. However, Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office and head of Hakuoh University Law School, sees the arrest of Miura in a different light. "There's an international trend to respect a ruling on a crime handed down in certain countries," Tsuchimoto said. "It's extremely rare for a person to be arrested over an incident for which he was found not guilty in Japan."

[IkemenTommy]

Miura can always hire a first-class lawyer and play the good ol' race card saying that the LAPD planted the evidences and how the boys used to use such words as "gooks, chinks, and japs" back in the war days.

[Greji]

Miura can always hire a first-class lawyer and play the good ol' race card saying that the LAPD planted the evidences and how the boys used to use such words as "gooks, chinks, and japs" back in the war days.

Then he hires John Edwards for a class action law suit and retires a billionaire! Possibly, his best move...

I do find it interesting that some of the dissenting legal voices in Japan are the same ones who refuse to accept evidence collected under standards in the US and as such will not extradite Japanese, nor use the evidence against Japanese tried in Japan.

[Iraira]

Miura can always hire a first-class lawyer and play the good ol' race card saying that the LAPD planted the evidences and how the boys used to use such words as "gooks, chinks, and japs" back in the war days.

"If the tebukuro does not fit, you must acquit."

[Mulboyne]

Interesting article from Jason Gray on Miura here.

[Catoneinutica]

TBS, Japan's most Big Daddy-obsessed network, has been wringing as much anti-American juice as they can from the story. You can't look at the screen without seeing that plaintive, greasy-faced lawyer of Miura's (seriously, the amount of grease and essential oils on the guy's face goes well beyond what I would've thought was the saturation point; I wonder if his face will spontaneously combust one day, like a bag of oily rags).

Lots o' talk about "double jeopardy" (uh, across international lines? Besides, doesn't the J-justice-system allow prosecutorial appeals? That poor Nepalese guy sent away for the murder of that moonlighting TEPCO chick seems to think so).

[Charles]

[SIZE="3"]Japanese murder suspect Kazuyoshi Miura's blog led to his arrest abroad[/SIZE]

In the end, it was his own Internet blog that helped Los Angeles detectives nab Kazuyoshi Miura.

Miura was arrested Friday while trying to leave Saipan, a popular tourist destination in the Pacific north of Guam. He had remained in the sights of the Los Angeles Police Department as a generation of homicide investigators came and went.

The 60-year-old suspect spent 13 years in Japanese prison after being convicted in that country of attempted murder for an earlier attack on his wife in a Little Tokyo hotel in Los Angeles. He was also convicted in Japan for the murder of his wife, but the case was overturned on appeal.

Miura, who was charged here with murder two decades ago, had remained out of the reach of Los Angeles police and prosecutors until the persistence of retired police Lt. Jimmy Sakoda and other detectives finally paid off, officials told The Times.

For the last two years, police had been monitoring a blog written by Miura, who had become a crime sensation in Japan because of saturation media coverage of his case. In recent blog postings, he spoke of his international travel plans, including a possible trip to Saipan.

Sakoda, who worked with Japanese authorities in their prosecution of Miura, had maintained contact with his international counterparts and immigration officials in Saipan, according to Det. Rick Jackson of the LAPD's Cold Case Homicide Unit.

When Jackson got a call last year from Sakoda about the blog postings, detectives alerted Immigration and Customs officials in Guam and Saipan, both U.S. territories, to be on the lookout for Miura.

...more at the LA Times...

[amdg]

Miura: “Ha! They’ll never catch me with my super-secret Japanese-only language!”.

Another example of underestimating the gaijin. You’d think eveyone in J-land would have learned from the code-breaking experiences of WWII. It should be required reading in schools here.

And it shows up the benefit of having a multi-cultural society, where police officers can have any ethnic background. Instead, the culturally-exclusive J-cops will keep languishing at the extreme perimeter of professional competence. I’m not complaining. I just think it’s humorous.

[Mulboyne]

[hodensaft]

LA Times had a story about this last week. The article has some insight on why double jeopardy doesn't apply here:

But in 2004, California lawmakers removed the double jeopardy protection for those put on trial overseas after Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David March was shot and killed in 2002 by a foreign national who later fled to Mexico.

[Big Booger]

LA Times had a story about this last week. The article has some insight on why double jeopardy doesn't apply here:

yeah he's basically fucked. A fucked (killer) gaijin.

[Kuang_Grade]

Looking at the J news program news feed Fuji does for the US, I was surprised to see that they put a mosaic over the Miura's handcuffs while being perp walked. I had thought that once someone was arrested, J media took all the visual obfuscation off the table given that arrest is tantamount to conviction in Japan. Or is it that because is it involves foreign law, where arresting someone is far less onerous and conviction is not effectively automatic, they are splitting the difference by saying, yeah he's arrested but we won't let you see those terrible gaijin handcuffs.

[dimwit]

Looking at the J news program news feed Fuji does for the US, I was surprised to see that they put a mosaic over the Miura's handcuffs while being perp walked. I had thought that once someone was arrested, J media took all the visual obfuscation off the table given that arrest is tantamount to conviction in Japan. Or is it that because is it involves foreign law, where arresting someone is far less onerous and conviction is not effectively automatic, they are splitting the difference by saying, yeah he's arrested but we won't let you see those terrible gaijin handcuffs.

No, they are supposed to keep the handcuffs mosaiced until the conviction.

[IkemenTommy]

Don't they usually mosaic the face for convicts and body parts if it was porn?