Japan: Stop the execution of mentally ill prisoners

The government of Japan’s continued practice of executing prisoners with mental illness is inhuman and must come to an end, Amnesty International said today with the publication of a new report on the treatment of the mentally ill sentenced to death in Japan. In the report, Hanging by a thread: mental health and the death penalty in Japan, Amnesty International condemned Japan’s practice of executing mentally ill prisoners which contravenes the international standards requiring those with a serious mental illness be protected from the death penalty, that Japan has signed up to. One hundred and two people are currently on death row in Japan waiting to find out if or when they will be put to death. For those who have completed the legal process, they are forced to await execution every day, facing a sentence that could be enforced at only a few hours notice. Each day could be their last and the arrival of a prison officer with a death warrant would signal their execution within hours. Some live like this year after year, sometimes for decades.