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June 29 (UPI) -- Japan's top court upheld Tuesday the death penalty for a woman dubbed the "black widow" for killing three men and attempting to kill another by poison. The ruling allows the death sentence for Chisako Kakehi, now age 74, to be finalized soon for killing her husband and two common-law partners with poison in Western Japan between 2012 and 2013 to inherit money and escape debt, The Japan Times reported.
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Kakehi has become infamously known as the "black widow" in reference to the female spider that kills its mates after sex.
She had registered with a matchmaking service and inherited about $9 million from relationships with more than 10 men, but she fell into debt after failed stock trading attempts, according to Japan's English-language daily newspaper.
Her lawyers had claimed she did not understand she was part of a criminal trial because her dementia had gotten worse and demanded another psychiatric evaluation, the newspaper added.
The Supreme Court said her crime was premeditated and cruel, Kyodo News reported.
"Her motivation for financial gain leaves no room for leniency," Presiding Justice Yuko Miyazaki said in the Kyodo News report.
A lower court sentenced Kakehi in 2017 to death by hanging for using cyanide to kill three men, including her 75-year-old husband, Isao, and common-law partners Masanori Honda, 71, and Minoru Hioki, 75, and attempting to kill acquaintance Toshiaki Suehiro, 79, who later died of cancer, between 2007 and 2013.
The district court judge determined she didn't have dementia when she killed the three men and attempted to kill the acquaintance, but the defense has appealed the case over the years.
Two years ago, the Osaka High Court rejected the defense's claim that she could not be held criminally liable due to dementia, Kyodo News previously reported.
