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No. of death row inmates hits 78, sign of toughening penalties+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TAKAMATSU, Japan, Dec. 29_(Kyodo) _ The number of inmates whose death sentences have been finalized stood at 78 as of Thursday, the largest in 37 years, reflecting social demands for tougher penalties in the wake of increasingly savage crimes, according to legal authorities.
Death sentences were finalized for 15 inmates last year and 11 this year, bringing the total figure of those awaiting death to its highest since 1968, when 82 inmates faced the gallows.
One to three inmates have been executed annually since 2000, and with only one inmate hanged this year, anti-death penalty campaigners have voiced concerns that another massive execution may take place in the near future.
Meanwhile, 38 people were sentenced to death this year, following 42 last year -- with 10 at the Supreme Court, 13 at the district courts and 15 at the high courts.
A Tokyo lawyer Yoshihiro Yasuda, well-known anti-death penalty campaigner, said, "The spread of social insecurity is leading to the tendency to toughen penalties. I want to prove that there is serious fault in the system of capital punishment."
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