Unlike in the U.S., death-row inmates know neither the day nor the hour.
Families find out afterward.
Another cadence would then emerge, a clap of the hard heels of boots, marching closer until his mind could see the line of grim-faced guards filing into the cellblock and standing at attention in the long corridor. Your time has come. The order was close, so close. Next door to Menda's cell, death was calling. As the United States girds for the May 16 execution of Timothy McVeigh, attended by the blare of publicity, Japan stands in contrast with a secretive system ignored by the public - and sometimes dead wrong, according to the its own officials.