Masumi Hayashi

Hayashi, 42, remained silent during her trial at the Wakayama District Court, which sentenced her to death in December 2002.

But with her decision to speak in the hope of overturning the ruling, the defense lawyers said they will seek permission from the high court to question the defendant.

According to the district court ruling, Hayashi killed four people, including two children, and made 63 others ill by lacing a curry stew with arsenic in the city of Wakayama on July 25, 1998, at a summer festival in the Sonobe district of the city.

The Japan Times Weekly: April 17, 2004
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