On May 31, a Japanese man suffering from Alzheimer’s was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for the murder of his granddaughter with whom he lived.
On September 9, 2020, 88-year-old Susumu Tomizawa got into an argument with 16-year-old Tomomi. Having drunk early in the evening and angry, he took a 17-centimeter kitchen knife. After that, he went to his granddaughter’s room to stab her in the neck several times.
Moments later, the octogenarian called his son to tell him he had found Tomomi’s bloodied body. The police arrived soon after and arrested Susumu.
The man confessed last month to killing his granddaughter but does not remember his actions.
Because he suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, his lawyers told the court that the man should not be held criminally responsible, as his illness caused dementia and memory loss. So he pleaded not guilty.
However, the situation was reversed: the Fukui city court disagreed.
On May 31, Susumu Tomizawa received a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for murder.
Doctors who evaluated his condition insisted that he had a motive to commit murder. “His actions were premeditated and consistent with his intent to kill,” forensic psychiatrist Hiroki Nakagawa told the court.
Judge Yoshinobu Kawamura said, “The defendant was in a state of mental exhaustion during the crime and had great difficulty in judging right and wrong, but was not in a state where he was incapable of committing a crime.”
