#Sakurai Haruka

[citygirlyuno305]

Comparing Amane to Haruka in terms of their cases- A jury will be less sympathetic to Haruka

Because I want to clarify why Haruka’s case is so much different than Amane’s or most others in MILGRAM, even if they appear facially the same. I focus largely on Amane’s murder of Shidou here instead of her mom, because I haven’t talked about it yet and it’s more similar/a more equivalent comparison to Haruka’s murder. But I’ll bring it up briefly in the end anyway.

I did a voice recording for this but I realized I sound like a total nerd AND i dont know how to upload them so… sorry 😔

First degree murder- premeditation and deliberation

Premeditation in the USA can be boiled down to whether you planned or thought about it before committing it more than just intention alone. It can be having a beautiful minds wall like Kotoko and meticulously planning it out, or it can be as simple as being with someone, seeing a rock, and deciding “yeah, I’ll pick it up and smash this motherfucker’s head in”. Whether someone had time to consider their actions also factors into premeditation.

Examples: Berube v. State, 5 So.3d 734 (Fla. 2009)- strangling victim with lamp cord was premeditated. Repositioning the cord multiple times while strangling, and having time to consider actions in a struggle before the strangling, supported premeditation.

People v. Anderson (1968)- Courts consider “planning activity” in assessing premeditation, including (1) Acquiring or preparing a weapon.

(2) Ambushing the victim or waiting for the victim to arrive at a specific location. (3) Traveling to the crime scene with murder in mind. Not all three are required.

The manner of killing can also support a finding of premeditation. Ex: strangulation, a controlled and prolonged act, supports the finding. Obviously if you’re staring them down, watching them die, you have the opportunity to cease your conduct.

Must also be deliberate. This is to act with coolness and collectedness. It can really be boiled down to whether you were able to consider your course of conduct.

In short:

Premeditation = I’ve thought about it and I’m gonna do it,

Deliberation = I’ve considered it and I’m gonna do it like this.

Insanity/diminished capacity

I’ll reiterate the most typical legal standard for insanity: a defendant is deemed to be legally insane if he or she was unaware of what he or she was doing when the offense was committed or, even if the defendant knew what he or she was doing, that defendant was incapable of understanding that what they were doing was wrong. It also tends to require a sincerely held belief or delusion that the conduct was morally justified. 

Kind of similarly, a defendant can plead diminished actuality, to argue that because of mental impairment or disease, they are simply incapable of reaching the mental state required to commit a crime. This would function to reduce a murder charge to manslaughter. This is different from competence to stand trial.

This used to be called diminished capacity. However, this changed: there was a case here where two men, Harvey Milk and George Moscone, were shot and killed by a man who then claimed he had diminished capacity due to a poor diet (“Twinkie defense”, not kidding). He argued the poor diet and depression from losing his job rendered him unable to form the mental state for first degree murder. Under the former statute this was shockingly solid. So, he was convicted of only voluntary manslaughter. Major public backlash ensued, and the diminished capacity statute was nixxed in 1982 after a substantial majority of voters approved a proposition for its elimination.

It was replaced with diminished actuality, California Penal Code section 28, subdivision (a): evidence that a defendant suffers from a mental disease, mental defect, or mental disorder is admissible “solely on the issue whether or not the accused actually formed a required specific intent, premeditated, deliberated, or harbored malice aforethought, when a specific intent crime is charged.”

As an example, someone who has an intellectual disability that causes their cognitive ability to resemble a child’s can argue diminished capacity for something like burglary or murder. Whether it actually works is a question of whether, because of that disability, you were literally unable to form the intent.

An expert can testify about how serious the mental illness was at the time the crime occurred but CANNOT testify that the mental illness actually did diminish the person’s capacity to form the required intent under the facts. That is the jury’s job (or the court’s job in a bench trial).

Amane vs Haruka breakdown: Haruka is more likely to be found guilty of first degree murder than Amane is

Amane

I already broke down her case for killing her mom, so I’ll avoid that here. So assume Amane didn’t kill her mom at all. Lets say she just killed Shidou somehow, who knows how, for the same reasons and with the same mental state.

Was it murder? Yes.

Was it premeditated? Probably. She wasn’t really playing coy about it. We’ll wait for the video, but by all measures, when you say “I’m probably gonna kill this dude btw” we tend to think “oh, ok, she planned to kill that dude.”

Was it deliberate? Probably, for the same reasons.

Insanity? I’m gonna say maybe, an argument could still be made maybe, but it’s a lot harder with just the Shidou offense than the mom one. And yet, the RAMCOA is an inextricable part of her crime. If she wasn’t programmed it simply would not have happened. She had a sincerely held belief that this was proper conduct. It could truly be argued she didn’t know right from wrong due to lifelong abuse. Especially because in this scenario she hasn’t stacked the murders, so she lacks any constructive knowledge that killing people is generally wrong because she’s not in fantasy jail for killing her mom.

Diminished actuality? Probably not. To have a mental illness or trauma alone doesn’t make anyone unable to premeditate murder, unless they literally have the cognition of a toddler. Her statements suggest she was able to form the intent. She explicitly targeted Shidou.

Was it functionally first degree murder? Yes.

Would she be convicted of it? Probably not.

Haruka

Now take Haruka’s murder of his first victim.

Was it murder? Yes.

Was it premeditated? Yes. I know a lot of people characterize it as a heat of the moment thing, but it wasn’t, really. He saw the girl at the festival, saw she was alone, and capitalized on the opportunity to lead her further away and kill her. It is premeditated.

Was it deliberate? Probably, for the same reasons as above.

Insanity? No. His actions to cover up the murder demonstrate his knowledge and awareness that his action was wrong (and the police intervention for the animals also could establish constructive knowledge that killing things is wrong but the impact of this depends on the type and severity of his disability).

Diminished actuality? No. Like, colloquially, yes, but legally, no. He actually has a leg up on Amane here, but the facts demonstrate, at least to me, that a jury wouldn’t find this. I’m trying to put this in a non offensive way but if I fail please let me know, I’m not trying to be offensive or rude. The thing is, it’s not like he was accidentally killing the pets. Despite the crimes being unsophisticated, he was doing them for 1) attention, which he lacked severely, and 2) because he was “relieved” that animals were “inferior” to himself. He also escalated from mice and rodents to cats and dogs, then eventually a person. He felt connected to the world when he heard screams of anguish at losing a loved pet, and then he was literally arrested and told that he was doing something wrong, before he killed a girl on the exact day he was released (and its unclear how long he was in custody). The file explicitly says he “targeted” a child as well, which denotes a certain degree of deliberation.

Was it functionally first degree murder? Yes.

Is he likely to be convicted of it? Probably.

Why is Haruka likely to be convicted of it and not Amane for her murder of shidou?

There are a few different reasons but ultimately it comes down to the fact that 1) Haruka can be found guilty of first degree murder under different theories, which automatically increases the likelihood of conviction; 2) Amane is simply a more sympathetic defendant; 3) Haruka’s animal killings make him less credible in terms of remorse for the murder; 4) Amane’s demeanor actually functions to increase the credibility of the impact of her RAMCOA; 5) Amane suffered a more sympathetic form and length of abuse in the eyes of the public; 6) Amane will likely enjoy the benefits of a juvenile court trial: 7) Haruka’s victim is more sympathetic than Shidou; 8) A little girl will always be infinitely more sympathetic than a teenage boy or grown man. TLDR: Amane’s abuse may actually resonate with a jury to the point where they say she didn’t and couldn’t know better. This is not the case for Haruka in all likelihood.

First, it’s probably necessary to point out that Haruka probably satisfies multiple theories of first degree murder. Beyond just premeditation and deliberation, which he would likely satisfy.

Felony murder, for example. Its less likely than the traditional theory but it’d definitely be thrown in as a failsafe in his case. Felony murder = (1) murder occurred in the commission of an enumerated felony (Most commonly BARRK- Burglary, Arson, Rape, Robbery, Kidnapping) and (2) defendant either caused the death or was an accomplice in the felony (and intended to commit the felony).

Kidnapping (CPC 207)- when its a child or someone with a mental impairment (incapable of consent and may walk off willingly) - requires 1) asportation of unresisting child 2) moving them a substantial distance and 3) with the intent to do something illegal.

Substantial distance only really means a distance that isn’t trivial. In considering whether a distance is “substantial”, some proper considerations are 1) the actual distance moved, 2) whether the movement increased the victim’s risk of harm, 3) whether the movement decreased the defendant’s chance of detection, 4) whether the movement allowed the defendant to commit more crimes.

Haruka 1) moves girl away from the parade 2) to a different location 3) with the intent of killing her. The movement obviously increased her chance of harm (further from her parents and others), decreased his chances of detection (if he only clumsily hid the body, itd be easily seen at a festival, but he wasn’t caught right away, so wherever he went, it was even slightly less easy to detect), and allowed him to actually kill her. I don’t know how far he took her. I just know that I’d be able to say this was sufficient evidence of kidnapping. I will admit though that I’d hesitate with this one because diminished actuality would be more likely to negate the intent to commit kidnapping than the other way around.

So obviously, if someone can be found guilty on several different theories of first degree murder, they’re more likely to be found guilty of it. Amane’s murder of Shidou could only ostensibly fall into the traditional premeditation and deliberation theory.

Amane is also just ultimately a substantially more sympathetic victim, despite her attitude. I’ve noticed more people sympathize with Haruka, which kind of blew my mind at first- not because he’s not sympathetic to me, but more because the dichotomy between sympathies to him vs. Amane was antithetical to what I’ve seen in practice. I think it has something to do with their behavior- confrontational vs. self loathing and inwardly directed hatred.

A jury might not actually like either, but Haruka’s more, because of something I think I talked about with Mikoto’s case, accountability and bias. I’m not putting out my opinion here, but there is a common belief among the public, which does not evade the potential jury pool, that people fake all sorts of mental illnesses or emotional responses to avoid accountability. The thing about Haruka that kind of fucks him over is, and this is actually a bias on my end as well, when I see a child that kills animals and then kills a person, I think sociopathy and psychopathy. And when I think about those things in terms of a murderer, I think 0 empathy and fake emotional outputs. I’ll say not every sociopath is going to murder someone, just like not all schizophrenic people will hurt someone and not all people with DID will hurt someone, its actually super uncommon. But when it does, that is generally the process of thoughts unless a psychologist indicates otherwise. And more often than not they don’t.

But anyway, Haruka will suffer from the fact that he killed animals and felt no remorse for those animals, according to the file, and enjoyed the attention he got from arrest. His remorse for the little girl will be seen as manufactured and fake. And even absent that difficulty, they’d likely see his remorse as incomplete and suggestive that he’d kill again- like, if he phrases it the same way:

“Her future was brighter, her life more valuable than my own, why did I end up like this?” That last bit, why did I end up like this, it’s phrased in a way that sounds conclusive and almost shifting. “I ended up like this.” Not, “I wish I could change” or “why am I doing this,” but I ended up like this, this is what I am. I’m not saying that’s true to form, but it is how a jury- who already probably doesn’t like him- would take it. And that’s actually all putting aside the possibility that the attention he’d get from a court trial wouldn’t excite him in the same way his arrest did.

And weirdly, a jury will probably find the way Amane acts to act as a booster to the sympathy for her abuse, because it’s like, okay- she’s abused her entire life and her programming is eliciting an angry response because she is literally that programmed, she doesn’t understand. Whereas with Haruka its like a paradox, they want remorse but they won’t take it seriously, and the remorse will just show them that he knew it was wrong. Its weird.

And just generally, the jury is gonna see Amane’s abuse differently than Haruka’s. The obvious difference between genuine corporal punishment and emotional neglect is pretty fierce. Which is not to minimize the impact of emotional abuse, but it is just the way these things are seen. There’s a substantially greater likelihood that people experienced some kind of emotional neglect than they did RAMCOA and cult related torture. And they’re more likely to say “my parents went hands off when I was a teenager and I didn’t run around killing kids” than they are to do that with RAMCOA.

Plus, Amane’s abuse seems to be lifelong whereas Haruka’s is kinda up in the air, depending on how you look at it. if i assume haruka murdered the girl when he was 15, that means his escalation from rats and mice, to dogs and cats, to a child, all took place in one year. And it assumes that his emotional neglect lasted for less than one year according to the file thing, because it seems they were overprotective until 15, then gave up. If thats the case, I don’t think the jury will feel any sympathy at all, because the emotional neglect didn’t even last a year before he started killing things.

At 17, he’s probably not being charged as a juvenile either. And that’s assuming he’s even 17. He might be 22. Whereas at 12, Amane would be. And I think I pointed this out in the Amane one, but juvenile adjudications have subtle tone and terminology differences that retain a minor’s humanity, which adult trials don’t employ. For Amane the jury is probably constantly hearing over and over and over that this is a child. With Haruka they’re hearing over and over that the victim is a child. And with things like this people will reflexively think about their own children or children in their lives and the usual person would be horrified at the thought of their child enduring it, and that abject horror takes the form of extreme pity for the child that did experience it.

Now neither haruka or amane killed someone here connected to their abuse- because I’m operating under a scenario where the mom murder didnt happen. So, Shidou and a little girl, and thats it. The more sympathetic victim is always going to be the little girl.

And in that same way, theyre gonna be more sympathetic to a little girl defendant than a teenage boy or man in his early 20s. I think I talked about this with Amane. At bottom it’s improperly rooted in sexism- violent boys and men are more likely to hurt more people, because of the average biological differences, and therefore for some reason less likely to be rehabilitated. And given how Haruka seems gentle or shy with his demeanor they’ll honestly see it as either fake, or even more dangerous, because he killed someone even with a nonviolent demeanor.

So with all of that in mind, the jury is unlikely to find that he didn’t premeditate and deliberate this murder to get attention. He had no delusion that murder wasn’t wrongful conduct. With Amane, the RAMCOA complicates that in a way that’s simply much much different. Frankly it’s impossible to even quantify. Combined with the other sympathetic factors of her case, she’s more likely to be treated sympathetically. Unlike Haruka’s case, it is truly possible to say she genuinely didn’t know any better because her entire life was cult rigidity and corporal punishment. They might not even find that she intended to kill, if she only said “punish,” because (again, she didnt kill her mom, so we have no baseline for what her view of punishment is at this point) for all we technically know, punishment was only those corporal punishments she herself was subjected to and lived through. And that alone would take it down to second degree, because first degree does require the intent to kill, whereas second degree murder can be intent to kill, injure, harm, etc.

And if we take Amane’s base crime of killing her mom and compare it to Haruka, it’s even more sympathetic. Again, the animal abuse stuff, they go nuts over it. Her helping the cat shows them shes not just a cold blooded killer. I’m not saying Haruka IS, though. Its just harder to swing that you’re not somewhat of a threat when you kill cats and dogs and then a kid. She killed her actual abuser, an adult, who isn’t going to be seen as sympathetic even in light of the possibility that she couldve been a cult victim herself. And the mindset with which she committed the murder was programmed into her by force and torture by the very person she killed. It’s really hard to not feel sorry for a child in that position or to find ways to say she’s guilty of first degree murder. Her ability to premeditate was either completely or largely dependent on her upbringing, and that enables the jury to find insanity and maybe actuality much easier than for Haruka, especially because the abuse was tangible and irregular.

[moibakadesu]

t3 Haruka album art parody

In a timeline where probably both him and Muu were forgiven ... because I unironically cannot get myself to draw him skinny and starved because it is triggering me ... and I was too far into the drawing when I was like "wait, his design would be different if he is guilty, I drew my headcanon for that before even"

[misamxsa]

come back to me haruka my beloved oomf i haven't drawn in years

[hanato-hoshi]

cleaning up my folder---- sth i drew a year or two ago

[ranmaru-kageyama]

MINIGRAM 66: "Don't Forget To Wash Your Hands" Translation

[itsnotmyfault04]

this is the worst day of my life

[nanashi-art]

well, milgram fandom, good morning

in honor of this, showing wip in half-dead milgram t2 zine (zine's not the only one half-dead)

[lagomoz]

honestly it's extra tragic to me that with Muu's help Haruka was improving his writing so much

exactly how much time is passing is weird, but she can't have been teaching him that long. Muu is a teenage girl with zero teaching experience, zero experience with intellectual disability and no outstanding linguistic talent. she's not dumb, but there's no mention of her being an exceptional student or being any kind of prodigy

and yet with her help, even in an environment like torture murder prison, he significantly and noticeably improved. not only did his writing/kanji/vocabulary make a huge leap forward, he became far more confident

he just needed someone, anybody, to care about him

[sinoi]

[moibakadesu]

"Okay, I do it myself" I say, creating a t3 uniform sprite for Haruka

[tommytomtomato]

Happy valentine’s day (month)

[konpeityon]

Sakurai Haruka💙🪽

[rinaelic]

Maybe it’s fine if I can’t go back to the outside world that won’t give me any attention.

[ranmaru-kageyama]

i cut out the prisoners from eeo store's new merch theme!! (maybe ill upload a cleaner version later)

(art is NOT mine, feel free to use however you wish!)

[hakunakii]

WOOOOOO happy 2025 I swear I did not forget that I have tumblr (lie)

Here’s my most recent artwork to kick off the year, it’s a screenshot redraw from weakness :3 I had a lot of fun working on it, coloring was my favorite hehe I like how vibrant it looks

Don’t really know why I felt like doing this, I’m not a huge Haruka fan but I won’t deny that he is literally me

Here’s the original screenshot for comparison!!

[piropoi]

Haruka needs to cover Neverland