Japan's 'love triangle' killer, 88, denied retrial and must remain on death row

An 88-year-old Japanese man convicted of poisoning five women to rid himself of an unwanted love triangle was today denied a retrial and ordered to remain on death row.

Masaru Okunishi was sentenced to death in 1972 after being convicted of multiple counts of murder by slipping pesticides into wine at a community party in a remote mountain village in central Japan.

The farmer initially told police he added the toxic chemicals to kill both his wife and his mistress, so he could untangle his twisted love life. Three other women also died, while a dozen fell ill but survived.

He later retracted his confession to the 1961 killings in the tiny settlement of Nabari, central Japan, saying he had been coerced by the police.

Presiding Judge Nobuyuki Kiguchi, at Nagoya High Court, on Friday turned down Okunishi’s eighth petition for a retrial, saying his defence team had failed to offer “new evidence necessary to revisit the case”.

Okunishi’s lead lawyer, Izumi Suzuki, said the verdict was “extremely unfortunate,” and insisted the defence would file a special appeal with the supreme court.

Okunishi, who spent decades in solitary confinement and is now hospitalised and bedridden, was acquitted at his initial trial in 1964 for lack of evidence.