A 33-year-old woman was sentenced April 28 to 15 years in prison for killing and dismembering her husband, with the Tokyo District Court finding her liable for the murder despite being in an impaired mental state after years of spousal abuse.

Kaori Mihashi KYODO PHOTO

Kaori Mihashi was found guilty of fatally striking her husband, Yusuke, with a wine bottle in December 2006 and disposing of his body parts around Tokyo after cutting up the corpse in the couple's condominium in Shibuya Ward.

Presiding Judge Masaya Kawamoto acknowledged that Mihashi "lived through hell" because of the repeated abuse at her husband's hand, which at one point drove her to seek asylum at a domestic violence shelter.

But while the abuse and subsequent mental disorder "may have influenced the crime, it was not at the level that would acquit the accused of criminal charges," Kawamoto said.

While acknowledging the findings of court-appointed psychiatrists, who said Mihashi was suffering from a temporary mental disorder during the killing, the judge said the court considered other aspects of the murder to determine her mental condition and criminal liability.

Some details of the murder, including the accurate and repeated blows to the victim's head, point to Mihashi's full awareness of the act, Kawamoto concluded.

The psychiatrists had determined that Mihashi was mentally incompetent at the time of the crime.

Mihashi nodded to the presiding judge as the sentence was read. Her lawyers criticized the ruling for finding their client completely liable but revealed that Mihashi has refused to appeal any court decision.