Following a lengthy trial, 45-year-old Shinji Aoba, known as the Kyoto Animation arsonist, was sentenced to death by the Japanese court for the 2019 attack on the studio, resulting in the loss of 36 lives.
Presiding judge Keisuke Masuda of the Kyoto District Court delivered the death penalty on January 25, as requested by the prosecution in December.
Aoba was convicted of setting fire to the Kyoto Animation studio out of a grudge, claiming the studio had stolen his work and ideas. Throughout majority of the trial period, Aoba showed no remorse for his actions up until the final stages when the prosecution started to wave the idea of the death penalty over his head.
He immediately changed his tune right then and there. The thought of being sentenced to death suddenly allowed him to “fully understand” the ramifications of his actions and began saying that he was “sorry”.
409 individuals queued up for one of the 23 available seats during the arsonist’s trial, which also included some family members of the deceased.
Despite the defense’s plea for leniency citing Aoba’s alleged diminished mental capacity, Judge Masuda deemed him mentally fit and held him criminally responsible for his actions.
The verdict is genuinely a deserved one. This pile of shit torched one of the most beloved Japanese animation studios, that aside he claimed the lives of 36 individuals and irreparably damaged countless families let alone Kyoto Animation as a production studio.
I only have one lingering regret, and that regret certainly has to be the fact that this verdict took so goddamn long to be cast. The trial for Shinji Aoba has been an extraordinarily lengthy one, he has been allowed to breath the same air as ordinary people for countless years fighting for his “ideas” in the court of law, that is the most shameful thing about this whole situation.
I wouldn’t necessarily call it proper “justice” if it is being rightfully served years after the whole incident, Aoba has been fighting for his life with this lengthy court battle all while many families have been out for his head right from the very moment he had been apprehended.
It may have taken a few years however it’s about fucking time.
