Japan court nixes request for retrial of 1992 schoolgirl murder case

A court rejected Wednesday an appeal to reopen a 1992 case over the murder of two elementary school girls in Fukuoka Prefecture in southwestern Japan, 16 years after a man convicted of the crime was executed.The decision by the Fukuoka District Court over the second plea to reopen the case in which Michitoshi Kuma was found guilty of murder drew attention as it could have become the first approval of posthumous retrial of a person put to death in the country.Kuma was executed at age 70 in 2008 for the kidnapping and killing of the 7-year-olds in the Fukuoka city of Iizuka. Kuma always maint…READ FULL ARTICLE