植松被告の死刑確定へ　控訴取り下げ、一審で―相模原殺傷

　相模原市の重度知的障害者施設「津久井やまゆり園」で２０１６年、入所者ら４５人が殺傷された事件で、殺人罪などに問われ一審で死刑判決を受けた植松聖被告（３０）が３０日、弁護人による控訴を取り下げた。控訴期限は同日で、３１日午前０時をもって死刑が確定する。死刑判決が一審で確定するのは異例。
　被告は公判で、「どんな判決が出ても控訴しない」と述べ、接見取材にも「主張はもう十分伝えた。二審、三審と続けるのは長過ぎる。間違っている」と控訴しない意向を示していた。
　裁判では事件当時の植松被告の刑事責任能力が争われたが、横浜地裁は１６日、大麻に関連した精神障害は犯行に影響を与えていないとして完全責任能力を認定。「強烈な殺意に貫かれた犯行で、結果は他の事例と比較できないほど甚だしく重大だ」として、求刑通り死刑を言い渡した。弁護人が２７日に控訴した。（2020/03/30-18:20）

A man accused of killing and injuring a total of 45 people at a care home for mentally disabled people in the city of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan, in 2016, withdrew on Monday an appeal filed by his defense counsel against the death sentence handed down on him by a district court recently.
   The sentence is set to become final at midnight on the day (3 p.m. GMT) as Monday is the deadline for filing an appeal. It is rare for a capital punishment sentence to be finalized after only the first trial.
   "I will not file an appeal no matter what ruling is made," Uematsu, 30, said during the trial at Yokohama District Court in the prefecture. He also said in a media interview: "I have fully conveyed my claims during the district court trial, and going to second and third trials would take too much time. It's a wrong thing."
   On March 16, Yokohama District Court sentenced Uematsu, a former worker at the care home, Tsukui Yamayuri-en, to death, as sought by prosecutors, acknowledging that he has full capacity to take criminal responsibility and was not in a state of cannabis-linked insanity at the time of the attack.
   The attack was carried out by intense murderous intent, and its results were too serious to be compared with other murder cases, the court said. His defense counsel appealed against the ruling on Friday.