Author, 3 Others Hanged in Japan
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TOKYO — Japan has hanged four people, including a prison author whose sentence for murders he committed as a 19-year-old sparked a national debate on capital punishment, media reported today.
Norio Nagayama, 48, who was convicted of killing four people in a 1968 shooting rampage, became a best-selling author while in prison. He and convicted murderer Hideki Kanda, 54, were hanged in Tokyo, news reports said. In Sapporo, a married couple who killed six employees in a fire they set to collect insurance were also executed.
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