Miura’s ‘inhumane’ incarceration decried

Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona allowed yesterday the lawyer of Japanese businessman Kazuyoshi Miura to file a motion to allow him to post bail.

Manglona gave Miura’s counsel until Friday, May 30, to file the motion for bail modification and directed the Attorney General’s Office to file its opposition to the motion by June 4.

The judge set the hearing for bail modification on June 6 at 2pm.

Manglona also granted Miura’s counsel’s request for an additional status conference, to be held on June 19.

Miura’s lawyers informed the court they are still waiting for what will happen in the California hearing.

At the hearing, the defendant appeared with his lawyers Bruce Berline, Mark Hanson, and William Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald told the court that their client should be allowed to post bail as he has been in jail for over three months now.

“This is too much of an expense to the Commonwealth,” Fitzgerald said.

He pointed out that Mr. Miura, who is 61 years old, is not a flight risk.

Reading a California judge’s statement in the Miura proceedings, Fitzgerald said the hearing in Los Angeles may be further delayed as some documents are needed to be translated.

“It is simply not fair to keep him in jail. He is 61 years old. This is an island. It’s just inhuman to keep him in jail!” Fitzgerald argued.

The lawyer said their client should be allowed to post bail under certain conditions such as requiring him to show up at every hearing or calling the authorities everyday, among other terms, on top of the fact that Miura had already surrendered his passport.

Fitzgerald said it is simply unfair to keep Miura languishing in jail, not to mention the Commonwealth’s expenses for his detention at this time of economic turmoil in the CNMI.

He also mentioned that it is a waste of the judiciary’s resources.

If Miura is in California, he would be eligible for bail, Fitzgerald said.

Assistant attorney general Jeffery Warfield Sr. maintained that Miura is a flight risk.

“He is wanted for murder in California. That’s a crime that carries a punishment of life imprisonment or death,” Warfield argued.

The prosecutor said he believes that if Miura is released he has all the reason to leave the CNMI to avoid further prosecution.

On the bail eligibility in California, Warfield said that’s absolutely untrue and a misstatement of law.

“Capital punishment such as murder allows no bail. The arrest warrant from the state of California requests that he be held on zero bail. So had he been arrested in California he would be held with no bail, just like here,” said Warfield in an interview with Saipan Tribune after the hearing.

There is a hearing schedule to take place on June 16 (California time and June 17 CNMI time) in L.A. in Miura’s case.

Warfield said that, at that point, the parties in the CNMI case will come back and finalize the briefing schedule if one is necessary.

Warfield does not think there is any argument that Miura’s counsel can make for their petition for writ of habeas corpus that is affected by the hearing in California.

“Whatever reasons exist for his release based on a petition for habeas corpus exist now. And they should go ahead and make those arguments now and we need to move forward in CNMI court and not stall this any further,” he added.

Miura was arrested by Saipan authorities at the Saipan International Airport on Feb. 22 in connection with the murder of his wife, Kazumi Miura, in L.A. in 1981.

Miura had already been convicted in Japan in 1994 of the crime. The verdict, however, was overturned by Japan’s high court 10 years ago.