Prison guard to hang for slayings
The Japan Times: Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006

Kyodo News
The Osaka High Court sentenced a prison guard to death Friday for killing a woman and her son and setting fire to their apartment in Osaka in 2002, nullifying a lower court-imposed life prison term.
Takemitsu Mori, 49, has consistently pleaded innocent to charges of murder and arson since his arrest in November 2002, but presiding Judge Toshio Shima handed down capital punishment based solely on circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution.
Mori's counsel said they plan to appeal the ruling. Judge Shima found Mori guilty of strangling Mayumi Mori, 28, drowning her son Toma, 1, in a bathtub, and setting fire to their apartment in Hirano Ward, Osaka, on April 14, 2002.
Mori at that time was married to Mayumi's mother-in-law but later divorced.
Shima said the three-judge court determined Mori was the culprit based on the prosecution's evidence.
"The defendant has failed to give a reasonable explanation of his activities on the day of the crime. The chances are slim that the crime could have been committed by a third party," he said.
In August 2005, the Osaka District Court found Mori guilty, accepting the prosecution-presented witness accounts and DNA tests on a cigarette butt found at the flat.