Curry Killer Sentenced To Death

A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced a woman to death for killing four people and sickening dozens by lacing curry with arsenic.

Masumi Hayashi, 40, was convicted of feeding the poisoned curry to neighbors in Wakayama city on July 25, 1998, court spokesman Yukihiko Shimada said. The court didn't cite a motive, but police said she was angry.

Four people, including two youngsters, died and 63 others fell ill after eating the curry at a festival in Wakayama, about 280 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Hayashi's lawyers appealed the case to the Osaka High Court, Japanese media reported.

The court's presiding judge, Ikuo Ogawa, said Hayashi had previously tried to poison others with arsenic, including her husband, Kenji. The judge said Hayashi was the only one among the four women preparing the curry who had been left alone and who wasn't sickened.

Although police found no witnesses, chemical analysis showed arsenic found in her home matched the poison in the curry, the court spokesman said.

The verdict was announced after Ogawa spent seven hours reading the court's 200-page explanation of its decision.

Hayashi, who was arrested in October 1998, had pleaded innocent to the murder and attempted murder charges.

The former insurance saleswoman previously pleaded guilty to eight charges of insurance fraud in separate trials.

In the fraud cases, Hayashi was accused of conspiring with her husband, a former termite exterminator, to obtain benefits by claiming he had lost the use of his arms and legs.

The curry poisoning case inspired dozens of copycat crimes across Japan. One man died after drinking canned tea laced with cyanide.

Japan, which reinstated capital punishment in 1993 after a four-year moratorium, executes prisoners by hanging.