Death penalty for ‘Twitter killer’ who killed nine people

TOKYO: A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for killing nine people he met online.

Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, nicknamed the “Twitter Killer”, was sentenced to death by a court in New York. The victims of the Twitter killer were between the ages of 15 and 26 and one of them was a girl.

Defendant’s attorney argued that since most of the victims were suicidal, the party should only be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Shiraishi has been linking people to posts related to the killings via Twitter. The offer was to help them implement their plan and, if necessary, to die with it.

The father of the slain girl responded that he would not forgive Shirashi even if he died. At the time of sentencing, the judge noted that not a single one of those killed had consented to die.

Although only 16 seats in the court were made available to the public, 435 attended the hearing.

Japan is one of the few developed countries where the death penalty exists. Support for the death penalty in the country is also high. The latest incident was the hanging of a young Chinese man in December 2019 who killed four members of a family.