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Man with Aspergers to Serve Twenty Years in Prison for Killing Sister

Submitted by Landon Bryce on Wed, 08/01/2012 - 08:49
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Kazuhiro Ohigashi, a Japanese man who has Asperger's syndrome, was convicted last year of killing his older sister:

From the fifth grade of elementary school and onward, Ohigashi refused to go to school and would refuse to leave the house. The court ruled that he somehow developed the idea that his older sister was to blame for his withdrawal, and over the years built up a deep anger towards her. When she came to visit his home one day in July of 2011, he attacked and stabbed her repeatedly with a kitchen knife. His mother, who usually lives with him, was at an institution on that unfortunate day.

The prosecution asked for a sixteen year sentence.  Citing his Aspergers, Ohigashi's lawyers asked for a suspended term.  The Osaka District Court gave him twenty years, the maximum sentence possible:

As his mother and other family members now refuse to live with him, and there were no other options for taking care of him, the court felt that it would be best to maintain social order by locking Ohigashi up for the longest term possible, in order to let him deepen his “soul-searching.”