{"id":21487,"date":"2023-09-08T16:16:56","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T07:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=21487"},"modified":"2023-09-08T18:23:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:23:24","slug":"20230908-21487","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/","title":{"rendered":"KyoAni arson trials: Can defendant\u2019s claim of being unaware of how many people would die mitigate the crime?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The long-awaited trials for the infamous Kyoto Animation arson case in which 36 people were killed and 32 were seriously injured started on September 5 this year. The public\u2019s gaze is fixed firmly on the hearings in anticipation of the outcome, and each of the defendant Shinji Aoba\u2019s statements are being heavily scrutinized. The defendant\u2019s claim that he was unaware of how many people could die due to his actions is raising some eyebrows in particular, with some voicing concerns that he may be suggesting homicide by willful negligence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"KyoAni fire: arson attack at Kyoto Animation studio in Japan\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sf8YtVHpE-U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>During the first trial for the case that was held at the Kyoto District Court on September 5, the defendant Aoba Shinji (45) admitted to all charges against him, including murder, attempted murder and arson of an inhabited object, but his defense pleaded not guilty and disputed his ability to bear responsibility (<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230907-21437\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Related Article<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to charges, Aoba reportedly responded, \u201cThere\u2019s no mistaking it was my doing. At the time, it was the only action I could think of. I didn\u2019t think so many people would die. Now, I feel that I had gone too far after all.\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/gendai.media\/articles\/-\/115841\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gendai Business<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hisashi Sonoda, a professor of criminal law, offered an analysis of this statement for the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.co.jp\/articles\/c5da821d29da8e6a728a4fd8d0542a8e5a17efa4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Daily Shincho<\/a>, addressing the probability of it being interpreted as willful negligence. At the time of the incident, Aoba himself suffered severe burns to over 90% of his body and was <a href=\"https:\/\/www3.nhk.or.jp\/nhkworld\/en\/news\/videos\/20230906152635644\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">on the verge of death<\/a> for months, dealing with the crippling consequences of the burns to this day. Professor Sonoda cites this as reason to believe that there is truth in the defendant\u2019s testimony, in the sense of him not knowing just how dangerous gasoline can be, adding that the case occurred in the heat of July, when gasoline would have vaporized in great amounts due to high temperatures.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21492\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2-380x253.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2-1068x712.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230907-21437-002-2-630x420.jpg 630w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However, according to Sonoda, even if the defendant\u2019s statement that he did not expect such a number of deaths is true, this testimony cannot be grounds for a judgement of homicide by willful negligence, and this is due to the other circumstances of the incident. First, the defendant surely recognized the objective danger in the act of pouring and setting gasoline on fire, as opposed to say, someone prank-ringing a fire alarm, resulting in people dying in a crowd crush while evacuating. This makes the murders fully intentional.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, Sonoda explains that the number of victims being unexpected could only mitigate charges if the defendant had carried out a prior investigation to determine the amount of people that would be present when he committed the crime, and an unexpected factor caused more people to be present than planned. In the Kyoto Animation arson incident, this was not the case.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trials are expected to continue until a ruling is handed down in January next year (<a href=\"https:\/\/mainichi.jp\/english\/articles\/20230905\/p2a\/00m\/0na\/001000c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Mainichi<\/a>),&nbsp;but another factor that remains a source of concern going forward is whether Aoba will be judged able to bear full responsibility for the crime or not, as his defense argues that he was non compos mentis and cannot be liable.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kyoto Animation arson case  suspect&#8217;s claim that he was unaware of how many people could die due to his actions is raising some eyebrows in particular, with some voicing concerns that he may be suggesting homicide by willful negligence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":21489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-21487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>KyoAni arson trials: Can defendant\u2019s claim of being unaware of how many people would die mitigate the crime?\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Kyoto Animation arson case suspect&#039;s claim that he was unaware of how many people could die due to his actions is raising some eyebrows in particular, with some voicing concerns that he may be suggesting homicide by willful negligence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"KyoAni arson trials: Can defendant\u2019s claim of being unaware of how many people would die mitigate the crime?\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Kyoto Animation arson case suspect&#039;s claim that he was unaware of how many people could die due to his actions is raising some eyebrows in particular, with some voicing concerns that he may be suggesting homicide by willful negligence.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-08T07:16:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-08T09:23:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230908-21487-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"757\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"KyoAni arson trials: Can defendant\u2019s claim of being unaware of how many people would die mitigate the crime?\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"The Kyoto Animation arson case suspect's claim that he was unaware of how many people could die due to his actions is raising some eyebrows in particular, with some voicing concerns that he may be suggesting homicide by willful negligence.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"KyoAni arson trials: Can defendant\u2019s claim of being unaware of how many people would die mitigate the crime?\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"The Kyoto Animation arson case suspect's claim that he was unaware of how many people could die due to his actions is raising some eyebrows in particular, with some voicing concerns that he may be suggesting homicide by willful negligence.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2023-09-08T07:16:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-09-08T09:23:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":757,"url":"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230908-21487-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"KyoAni arson trials: Can defendant\u2019s claim of being unaware of how many people would die mitigate the crime?\u00a0","datePublished":"2023-09-08T07:16:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-08T09:23:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/"},"wordCount":549,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230908-21487-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/","name":"KyoAni arson trials: Can defendant\u2019s claim of being unaware of how many people would die mitigate the crime?\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230908-21487-header.jpg","datePublished":"2023-09-08T07:16:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-08T09:23:24+00:00","description":"The Kyoto Animation arson case suspect's claim that he was unaware of how many people could die due to his actions is raising some eyebrows in particular, with some voicing concerns that he may be suggesting homicide by willful negligence.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230908-21487-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230908-21487-header.jpg","width":1200,"height":757},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20230908-21487\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"KyoAni arson trials: Can defendant\u2019s claim of being unaware of how many people would die mitigate the crime?\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21487"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21504,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21487\/revisions\/21504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}