Japanese court sentences ‘Joker’ to 23 years for stabbing passenger, setting a fire on a Tokyo train

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court has sentenced a man to 23 years in prison for stabbing a passenger and setting a fire on a Tokyo express train while dressed in a Joker costume on Halloween two years ago. The court found Kyota Hattori guilty of attempted murder for stabbing and seriously injuring a male passenger in his 70s and of spraying lighter fluid in the train car and then lighting it to try to kill others. During the trial, Hattori told the court he was so shocked when he learned that his girlfriend had married someone else only six months after they broke up that he decided to carry out the attack so he could end his life by receiving the death penalty.