On Monday, judges of the Tokyo High Court ruled that Tomohiro Kato will not be given a second psychiatric examination. Kato has already been convicted of killing a mass amount of people in the Akihabara district of Tokyo in June of 2008. Currently, the next session in the ongoing appeals trial will take place on July 2nd.
In March of 2011, Tomohiro Kato was given the death penalty and sentenced to hang. On June 8th, 2008, the 25 year old drove a large delivery truck into a crowded, pedestrian-only zone of the popular consumer electronics district of Akihabara. He ran down five people with the vehicle, leaving three dead and two injured, then he got out and began using a dagger to stab anyone he could reach. He killed another four people and injured eight others with the knife.
Akihabara massacre, June 8th, 2008
In attempting to get another mental examination, Kato’s attorneys argued that he was mentally incapable of responsibility when committing the attacks, and therefore could not be sentenced as a criminal. In a previous exam ordered by the district court, Kato was ruled as mentally capable, and was denied a second exam on those grounds. Investigators found that about 20 minutes before the attack, he posted messages to a website via his cell phone stating what his intentions were, one of which clearly said that he would “kill people in Akihabara.”