Kazuyoshi Miura (businessman)

Miura was born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1947. After dropping out of a high school in Yokohama, he was arrested for arson and served some years in a juvenile prison. He was suspected of the 1979 killing of his former lover Chizuko Shiraishi.{{cite news|url=http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=80746|title='Unidentified dead woman found in '79 was Miura's missing GF'|newspaper=Saipan Tribune|date=June 10, 2008|accessdate=October 12, 2008|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928095505/http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=80746|archivedate=September 28, 2011}}{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-me-oldermiura,0,4897275.story |title=From the archives: Japanese arrest mate of woman mortally shot on L.A. street |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=October 11, 1985 |accessdate=October 12, 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017205808/http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/asia/la-me-oldermiura%2C0%2C4897275.story |archivedate=October 17, 2008 }}

Miura, a clothing importer who often traveled to the United States, was suspected of conspiring to kill his wife, {{nihongo|Kazumi Miura|三浦 一美|Miura Kazumi}} on November 18, 1981, while visiting Los Angeles. On that day, an unknown assailant shot Miura in the right leg and his wife in the head while the two were in a parking lot. After the shooting, Kazumi Miura remained in a coma. She was flown back to Japan by a U.S. Air Force hospital jet. She was blind, paralyzed, unconscious and subsisting on life-support machinery. She died almost a year to the day after the shooting. Kazumi Miura was the mother of a 13-month-old child.{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-miuri31mar31,0,5730726.story?page=1|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130127174741/http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-miuri31mar31,0,5730726.story?page=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 27, 2013|title=Man Is Convicted in Japan of L.A. Murder|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=March 31, 1994|accessdate=October 10, 2008}}

Miura said that street robbers killed his wife, and while in the hospital, campaigned against violence in Los Angeles. Miura said that he wrote letters to President Ronald Reagan and California Governor Jerry Brown and asked the two to secure Los Angeles. The incident reinforced Japanese stereotypes about U.S. violence.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7261477.stm|title=Man held over wife's 1981 murder|work=BBC News|date=February 24, 2008|accessdate=March 6, 2008}}

In 1984, the Japanese magazine Shūkan Bunshun published articles which indicated Miura had been involved in the killing of his wife. The articles revealed that he took out a life insurance policy on his wife worth the equivalent of US$1.4 million. In addition, an actress, who said she was Miura's lover, said that Miura asked her to kill his wife. Daryl Gates, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department during the Miura incident, said that the department and Japanese police suspected Miura had arranged to have his wife killed."[http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/23/japan.businessman.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch Japan businessman arrested in wife's 1981 killing] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219031354/http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/23/japan.businessman.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch |date=2008-12-19 }}." CNN. February 23, 2008."[http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/24/japan.businessman.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch Japan businessman arrested in wife's 1981 killing] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509124609/http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/24/japan.businessman.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch |date=2008-05-09 }}." CNN. February 24, 2008. However, the shooter never was found, and there was no physical evidence linking Miura to the murder.{{cite news|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20030401b2.html|title=Miura case came to define sensationalism|newspaper=Japan Times|date=April 1, 2003|accessdate=October 11, 2008}}

According to then Los Angeles District Attorney Ira Reiner, LAPD homicide detectives did not believe that Miura was the perpetrator, but rather that the events had been a "vicious...street crime".{{cite news|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/26/america/NA-GEN-US-Japanese-Businessmans-Wife.php|title=Arrest warrant says Japanese businessman orchestrated wife's killing in Los Angeles|newspaper=International Herald Tribune|date=February 26, 2008|accessdate=March 6, 2008}} However one officer, Jimmy Sakoda, head of the Asian Crimes Squad, did not share the homicide detectives' conclusions. He took his concerns to Reiner who then began working with Japanese prosecutors. Reiner has stated that were it not for Sakoda's persistence the case might have been relegated to the unsolved, or cold case files.

Miura was convicted of the murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Japan in 1994, upon which he promptly appealed to Tokyo High Court. After four years of deliberation, Tokyo High Court overturned the conviction and the resulting sentence, because they were not able to identify the assailant{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-japanese2mar02,1,140660.story |title=Miura case draws media frenzy |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=March 2, 2008 |accessdate=March 6, 2008 |first=Teresa |last=Watanabe |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522135609/http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-japanese2mar02%2C1%2C140660.story |archivedate=May 22, 2011 }} and thus could not prove conspiracy.{{cite web|url=http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/feature/20080225-1331217/fe_080304_01.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20080314111815/http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/feature/20080225-1331217/fe_080304_01.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 14, 2008|script-title=ja:ロス疑惑「共謀罪」焦点に |language=Japanese |publisher=Yomiuri shimbun|date=March 4, 2008|accessdate=January 7, 2010}}{{cite encyclopedia|title=ロス疑惑 | encyclopedia =知恵蔵|publisher=Asahi shimbun| year = 2008 |url=http://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B9%E7%96%91%E6%83%91|accessdate=January 7, 2010|language=ja}} In 2003, the Japanese Supreme Court also acquitted him of the charge, saying "high court's judgment that there is reasonable doubt that he conspired with an unidentified person to kill his late wife is reasonable."

California authorities learned that Miura frequently visited U.S. territory on business, and waited until he made a trip to the island of Saipan in the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands, where he was arrested on February 22, 2008. In Saipan, he began fighting extradition to California,{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lapd-nets-a-japanese-cold-case-killer/|title=LAPD Nets A Japanese Cold Case Killer|publisher=CBS|date=February 23, 2008|access-date=February 24, 2008}}{{cite news|url=http://origin.mercurynews.com/news/ci_8345857?nclick_check=1|title=Japanese man arrested on U.S. warrant for 1981 LA shooting|work=Mercury News|date=February 23, 2008|accessdate=February 25, 2008}} {{dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-japan23feb23,1,5576613.story?ctrack=1&cset=true |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110811020418/http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-japan23feb23,1,5576613.story?ctrack=1&cset=true |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 11, 2011 |title=Man again held in his wife's 1981 killing in L.A. |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=February 23, 2008 |accessdate=February 24, 2008 |first=Marla |last=Cone }} and hired lawyers both on Saipan and in Los Angeles. A former federal prosecutor noted that the 27 years since the crime could help Miura's defense. "Witness memories don't get better with time," she said in an interview with the International Herald Tribune. Los Angeles prosecutors announced that they identified the actual sniper, but there was no move by the prosecutors to arrest the deadly sniper.{{cite web|url=http://www.knbc.com/news/17694136/detail.html|title=Japanese Man Facing Murder Charges In LA Hangs Himself|publisher=KNBC|date=October 11, 2008|accessdate=October 11, 2008}}

The legal battle to avoid getting extradited to California continued until late September when the Los Angeles Superior Court dropped the murder charges, due to prohibition of double jeopardy, but found conspiracy charges, which do not have capital punishment, valid. Miura gave up his fight against extradition {{cite news|url=http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=83955&cat=1|title=Miura throws in the towel|newspaper=Saipan Tribune|date=September 30, 2008|accessdate=November 24, 2008|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214004911/http://www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?newsID=83955&cat=1|archivedate=February 14, 2012}} and was transported to Los Angeles, California, arriving in the early morning of October 10, 2008,{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-miura11-2008oct11,0,7654084.story|title=Slaying suspect Kazuyoshi Miura returns to L.A. in custody|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=October 11, 2008|accessdate=October 11, 2008 | first=Molly | last=Hennessy-Fiske}} That night, according to an announcement by the police, he committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell.{{cite news|url=http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20081011p2a00m0na015000c.html |title=Miura commits suicide in Los Angeles |newspaper=Mainichi Shimbun |date=October 11, 2008 |accessdate=October 11, 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014001606/http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20081011p2a00m0na015000c.html |archivedate=October 14, 2008 }}{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-miura12-2008oct12,0,1211729.story|title=Japanese businessman Kazuyoshi Miura is found dead in jail cell|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=October 11, 2008|accessdate=October 11, 2008 | first1=Martha | last1=Groves | first2=Andrew | last2=Blankstein | first3=Teresa | last3=Watanabe}} Although an independent pathologist hired by the defense attorney stated the evidence showed Miura was murdered while in jail,{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-miura21-2008oct21,0,1342801.story|title=Attorney says Kazuyoshi Miura was killed in L.A. jail|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=October 21, 2008|accessdate=October 22, 2008 | first=Andrew | last=Blankstein}} the Los Angeles County coroner ruled that the cause of death was suicide.{{Cite news |date=December 5, 2008 |title=Coroner: Miura death was suicide |work=The Japan Times |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2008/12/05/national/coroner-miura-death-was-suicide/ |access-date=October 8, 2020}}

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Category:1947 births

Category:2008 deaths

Category:20th-century Japanese businesspeople

Category:Murder-for-hire cases

Category:Suicides by hanging in California

Category:People from Yamanashi Prefecture

Category:People who died by suicide in prison custody

Category:Japanese people who died in prison custody

Category:Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention

Category:Japanese people imprisoned in the United States

Category:Prisoners and detainees of Japan

Category:People acquitted of murder

Category:2008 suicides