In this courtroom sketch, Masumi Hayashi listens June 28 to a high court verdict sentencing her to death, upholding a lower court ruling.

The Wakayama District Court in December 2002 sentenced Hayashi, 43, an ex-insurance saleswoman, to death after convicting her of killing the four, including two children, injuring the 63, and attempting to fatally poison her husband, Kenji, and another acquaintance in connection with separate cases of insurance fraud.

Hayashi had pleaded not guilty to putting arsenic into the curry pots during a summer festival in her neighborhood July 25, 1998.

Looking much thinner than when she was arrested and smiling nervously, Hayashi sat fidgeting while presiding Judge Kazuhisa Shirai read out the verdict: "Given the facts, there is no room for doubt that Hayashi committed the crime."

Though concluding the motive behind the curry-poisonings was "unknown," the high court said Hayashi had intent to kill in lacing the stew because "she acknowledged fully the risk of arsenic."

The judge also dismissed her plea of innocence, saying her previous statements about her whereabouts at the time of the crime and her denial of the ability to carry out the crime can't be trusted.

She claimed to have been with a neighbor and had no opportunity to poison the curry. But other neighbors said she was alone for some time.

"Based on the testimony of the local residents, the time of the crime was when the defendant was alone," Shirai said.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 2, 2005
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