Photo/Illutration The Tsukui Yamayurien care home for people with disabilities in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, after the fatal incident on July 26, 2016 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

YOKOHAMA--The district court here March 16 handed the death sentence to a man whose mental competence to stand trial was at issue over one of the worst mass murders in the country's history.

Presiding Judge Kiyoshi Aonuma of the Yokohama District Court found Satoshi Uematsu guilty of murdering 19 individuals at a facility for people with disabilities in Kanagawa Prefecture where he worked. The shocking incident occurred on July 26, 2016.

Uematsu, 30, had admitted to carrying out the frenzied stabbing rampage that also injured 26 others, some seriously.

After his arrest, Uematsu made statements to police along the lines that society would be better off if there weren't any people with disabilities. His warped sense of life and his mental state were key issues during the trial.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, which in Japan is carried out by hanging.

Uematsu was accused of breaking in to the Tsukui Yamayurien care home in Sagamihara in the prefecture in the early hours of July 26, 2016, binding staff members on duty and slashing 43 disabled residents who were still mostly in their beds.

Nineteen residents were stabbed in the neck as well as other parts of the body.

Much of the trial focused on arguments as to whether or not and to what degree Uematsu was mentally competent to be held criminally responsible for his actions.

Prosecutors argued that Uematsu’s motive to “kill the disabled who cannot communicate” was due to his own personality, which they said was clearly influenced by his experience of working at the care facility, among other factors.

They contended there was nothing abnormal about Uematsu developing dark thoughts and declared he was mentally competent to bear responsibility for the rampage.

Defense lawyers argued that Uematsu’s personality and actions underwent a drastic change about a year before the incident as a result of him having abused marijuana for several years.

They said Uematsu had experienced delusion and hallucinations, which had impaired his ability to weigh whether his thoughts were realistic.

Uematsu had developed chronic psychopathic symptoms through his long use of marijuana, the defense lawyers said.

They called for Uematsu to be judged mentally incompetent and either acquitted or given a lesser sentence due to his diminished capacity.

(This article was written by Mirei Jinguji and Hirohisa Yamashita.)

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