A Japanese businessman accused of killing his wife in Los Angeles, California, in 1981 can be prosecuted in a US court despite being cleared of the murder in his home country, a judge ruled on Friday.
Kazuyoshi Miura — who has been dubbed the “Japanese OJ Simpson” — is charged with murder and conspiracy in the death of his 28-year-old wife, Kazumi, who was shot in the head in downtown Los Angeles in November 1981.
Lawyers for Miura, 61, who was arrested during a visit to the US territory of Saipan in February, had argued he could not be tried for murder in the US because of “double jeopardy” rules.
Miura was cleared of his wife’s killing by a court in Japan in 1998 following a marathon legal saga.
However, California Superior Court Judge Steven Van Sicklen found that because Miura was never charged or tried with conspiracy to commit murder in Japan, he could be prosecuted on that charge in the US.
“There is no evidence of a double jeopardy bar to the present prosecution on the charge of conspiracy, that charge must stand and the People may go forward with their prosecution on that charge,” he ruled.
However Miura cannot be tried on a specific count of murder, Van Sicklen ruled.
After the ruling both defense lawyers and prosecutors claimed victory, with Miura’s attorney Mark Geragos saying he was pleased to have had the murder charge against his client dismissed.
“I don’t think by any means is it over, and to the extent that he’s not going to be charged with murder and cannot be prosecuted for murder, we’re gratified [by] that,” Geragos said.
Prosecutors said the charge of conspiracy to commit murder carries the same sentence as a first-degree murder charge — 25 years to life in prison — and did not rule out an appeal of the judge’s decision to strike the murder charge.
“We’re going to be looking over our options,” said Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. “Right now, we’re concentrating on getting Mr. Miura back here, getting him into court in Los Angeles and getting this case into the proper forum, which is where this crime occurred.”
Miura’s wife died in hospital in Japan in 1982, just over a year after the shooting. Miura, who was shot in the leg in the same incident, claimed at the time that he and his wife had been attacked by robbers. However. it was later revealed he had collected hundreds of thousand dollars in life insurance following the killing.
He was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Japan in 1994. But that verdict was overturned by the Tokyo High Court in 1998 on the grounds that the gunman had never been identified.
Los Angeles prosecutors alleged Miura “solicited five different people to murder his wife,” including the person who actually shot her.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I