She administered disinfectant to their intravenous treatments – She hinted that she could have killed up to 20 people in just two months
Former nurse , who killed three patients by infecting the treatment granted by the intravenously with disinfectant, today sentenced to life imprisonment by the Japanese court, according to local media.
During her trial, 34-year-old Ayumi Kuboki confessed to killing seventy-year-old and eighty-year-old patients five years ago in a case that had shocked Japan.
She had previously told police she could have killed 20 people in just two months, but later told prosecutors she could not comment on the matter during the trial.
The judge, who presided over the Yokohama District Court that ruled in favor of the nurse, said he had considered sentencing Komboki to death, state-run NHK television reported.
“She stated that she regrets (for her actions) and that she wants to pay for her crime, there is a case for her to be corrected and I could not but hesitate to choose the death penalty,” the judge said.
Prosecutors had called for the former nurse to be sentenced to death , but the defense said the defendant was suffering from depression due to the stress caused by the death of her patients and that her abilities had been reduced.
Komboki told the court she did not want her family members to blame her for something bad happening to her patients when she was on duty and that she felt “relieved” when one of her victims died, according to the NHK.
So far it has not been possible to contact court officials to comment on this news.
Today, about 100 inmates are sentenced to death in Japan, one of the very few industrialized countries that continues to use the death penalty by hanging.
Support for the death penalty remains high in Japan despite international criticism, including from human rights groups.
