death row inmate dies after choking on prison meal

Convicted Killer On Death Row Dies After Choking On Prison Meal

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A woman on death row in Japan died hours after reportedly choking on her food in prison.

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Miyuki Ueta, 49, was eating during lunch hour at the Hiroshima Detention Center when she began choking on her food around 4:20 p.m. According to LADBible, staff attempted to remove food from her throat before transferring her to a nearby hospital for treatment. Ueta died hours after her arrival at the medical facility. She was taken to the hospital for a similar incident just days before her death.

Ueta received the death penalty in 2012 after being convicted of the murders of two men she owed money to in Tottori. The former bar hostess murdered 47-year-old truck driver Kazumi Yabe and 57-year-old electronics store owner Hideki Maruyama in 2009. The men were murdered just a few months apart. In a statement to NHK, Maruyama’s son expressed shock at Ueta’s death.

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“It’s been 14 years since my father died, and I’m surprised that a death row inmate died in this way. Since then, I think it’s been taking too long without being executed. Every day I put my hands on my father at the Buddhist altar in my house, and tonight I’d like to put my hands together and report today.”

Ueta was also suspected of killing Shinichi Furuta,27, Houitsu Sakai, Kazuma Taguchi, and Akira Sao. Their associations with Ueta led investigators to believe she was involved in their deaths. Some of these victims were either frequent bar patrons or her boyfriends at the time. These murders occurred from 2004 to 2009. Her conviction was based on circumstantial evidence since she was the last person to meet with the men before their deaths. Prosecutors also stated she purchased sleeping pills before drowning the men.
Prior to her conviction, Ueta appealed the charges and said she had no involvement in the men’s deaths.
According to the outlet, there are currently 105 people on death row in Japan, and capital punishment is still legal in the country. In November 2022, three death row inmates sued the government to end the practice of hanging prisoners as a form of execution. They claimed that the practice was cruel. Furthermore, inmates who were sentenced to death by hanging were only informed hours before their deaths.

The most recent execution in Japan was in 2019 when Chinese national Wei Wei was hanged for the killing of a family of four in 2003.

 

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