Example of Extradition: Japanese Suspect to be Retried in U.S. on Murder Charge

Posted on: March 1, 2008 at 2:12 p.m.

LAPD homicide investigators continued their investigation for close to thirty years of a homicide of a 28-year-old Japanese tourist Kazumi Miura, shot in the head next to downtown's four-level freeway interchange. They have continuously pursued her husband, Kazuyoshi, for the 1981 crime. But he remained beyond their reach, as Japanese authorities tried and convicted him of murder, only to see the case overturned. Because he was acquitted on appeal for the murder in Japan, he could not be extradited to the United States.

Finally in February 2008, the investigators no longer needed to pursue Extradition from Japan because they received a tip from the suspect's perosnal blog that he would be visiting Saipan, a United States' territory. Since 2005, police had been monitoring postings by Miura, who had become an outsized Japanese personality because of media coverage of his alleged crimes. On one website, Miura promotes himself as a human-rights advocate who helps those falsely accused of crimes. He also publicizes his book and a DVD about his case and holds gatherings featuring alleged victims of wrongful prosecution and other guests, whom he charges about $30 to attend. In postings last year, police said, he mentioned international travel plans, including a possible trip to Saipan, a U.S. territory and popular tourist destination north of Guam.

Learning of the suspect's plans, detectives alerted Immigration and Customs officials in Saipan to be on the lookout. They apparently missed his arrival, but immigration agents on the island nabbed Miura, now 60, last Friday when he attempted to leave for Japan.

LAPD detectives say they have a strong circumstantial case, built on evidence they helped prepare for the prosecution that initially succeeded in Japanese courts. The arrest and trial to come will bring the long, twisting saga -- a Japanese version of the O.J. Simpson case, featuring allegations of a hit man, a conspiracy with a former adult actress and a $650,000 life insurance policy -- back to where it began, and back into the media eye.
At Los Angeles police headquarters Thursday, detectives were briefing a Japanese television team on the case. Twelve more camera crews waited in the lobby.

It was about noon in the fall of 1981, Kazuyoshi Miura said, and he was snapping photos of his young wife Kazumi on Fremont Avenue, beside the Harbor Freeway, when she fell to the pavement, apparently shot in the head. He said that as he ran to her, he felt his left thigh burning and realized he also had been hit. "Without any contact or asking, they just started to shoot," Miura told a reporter from his hospital bed. "To do this, just for $1,000. What is this all about?" He blamed America's culture of violence and said he would write protest letters to the president, the governor and the mayor. "Many Japanese will be coming to the U.S. with a dream on their hearts. I strongly hope this accident will never occur again," he told one group of reporters. The .22-caliber round that struck Kazumi left her in a coma for a year. The U.S. Air Force flew her back to Japan, where she died in November 1982.

At first, Kazumi's death appeared to make the case that no one was safe in Los Angeles, then struggling to control drug and gang violence. But as L.A. police and Japanese reporters dug deeper, darker details began to emerge. There had been an attempt on her life three months before she was shot.
Miura had allegedly plotted with a former Japanese adult-film actress, who came to Los Angeles and pretended to be a seamstress. The actress, Michiko Yazawa, visited Kazumi in her room and struck her in the head with a hammer.

Despite the suspect's claims of being attacked by third parties in 1981, the evidence against him includes being involved in previous attempts at her life, and the motive to collect the life insurance taken on her. While the evidence may be compelling, Southern California criminal defense lawyers are concerned about the state's attempt to reprosecute someone who has already been acquitted in Japan. This is a Double Jeopardy issue which is troubling from the perspective of U.S. Constitutional Law. The state should not have two bites at the apple according to our Constitution. The Law Blog understands that Japan is a different jurisdiction, and may have completely different procedures. However, the evidence failed one time, and the suspect has already been through the ordeal of one trial. Should he be subjected to a new prosecution? California criminal law authorities believe he should.

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Farzad Mashhood on June 1, 2009 at 9:45 p.m. wrote:

Of course he should be tried again. Too often are high-profile criminals easily let off. When I think of this guy, he immediately strikes me as a crook out to make a fast buck. If he’s trying to help people who have “wrongly accused of crimes,” why does he charge 30 bucks to hear people’s stories? He is taking advantage of his fame for murdering a woman. As for the legal side of this, I don’t see why he cannot or should not be tried in the states. He murdered -- it should not matter where he is or where he’s from. Murder is murder wherever you are. This man should be held accountable and tried for his actions. It should not matter that it has been almost 30 years, it’s not like he has at all suffered. In fact, he’s made a profit out of his horrible actions. Moreover, his belief that America embraces violence is absurd. Just because he does not agree with the society he lives in, it does not mean he can murder -- not only is murder illegal in the society he does not like, murder is legal everywhere else. Finally, I don’t think this is double jeopardy because his initial trail was not in a US court. As the blog stated, the US and Japan can have different procedures so what takes for an appeal to go through there may be different from what it takes here. We cannot let another country’s legal system determine our cases.

Kelsey Kernstine on May 18, 2008 at 5:02 a.m. wrote:

It is now almost 30 years after the murder. For me, I feel like why should we waste our time on a case that occurred 30 years ago. Yes, this man murdered his wife with the involvement of a third party, but it also happened so long ago. I think that we should have so many other important cases to deal with rather than one that occurred so long ago by a man from Japan. It just does not seem that ethical to me. Yes, the scene of the crime did happen in the U.S., but what point are we trying to make to try to solve something from so long ago and punish a man now 30 years after the fact. It just does not make that much sense to me and I feel that we should have many more important cases to contend with. I also wonder if Muira is extradited, yet was acquitted in Japan, how this affects our relationship with Japan? I feel like such action could make it seem, as though we do not believe the Japanese court system is competent. After all, we are attempting to try a man in the U.S. that was already acquitted in Japan. All in all, I do not feel that we should make a case like this such a big priority as to track this man down as it is something that occurred so long ago and he was already acquitted in Japan.

Steven Douglas Currie on April 12, 2008 at 8:26 p.m. wrote:

Is justice realizable when substantial fundamental tenets of United States jurisprudence are eviscerated? If we accept that the Japanese legal system, while different from our own, is excercised in an essentially impartial and fair fashion, then it is incumbent upon us to honor the results of this outcome as if it were our own. Justice does not cease at arbitrarily erected borders. Would we want the same for ourselves or our loved ones? Are these principles by which we could ourselves live by? By way of objection, the only analogy which seems worthwhile is the notion that one may both be charged in federal court and in state court emerging from the same event. This is often not considered to be an instance of double jeaprody. However, it is long overdue that this be revisited as well. Finally, it shocks the conscience to imagine murderers going free and escaping their just deserts, yet it is even more disturbing to violate the very constitutional protections which are the underpining of any just system of law.

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Example of Extradition: Japanese Suspect to be Retried in U.S. on Murder Charge

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