UKUOKA -- Death sentences were upheld by the Fukuoka High Court Thursday against a yakuza gang boss and his son, ensuring they will join his wife and another son on Death Row.

The court dismissed the appeals by gang boss Jitsuo Kitamura and his son, Takashi, against the lower court ruling that sentenced them to death for committing four murders in 2004.

The high court has also upheld execution orders handed down to Kitamura's wife, Mami, and another son, Takahiro, for their roles in the killings.

Each member in the family of four has now received a death sentence that has been upheld by a high court.

During his initial trial at the Kurume Branch of the Fukuoka District Court, Jitsuo Kitamura, 64, said he alone had killed all four people the clan was accused of murdering. However, during the appeal trial, Kitamura said his family had worked together to bring about the killings.

His 27-year-old son Takashi, however, has maintained his innocence throughout proceedings. The lower court ruling found Jitsuo Kitamura had committed the three murders as well as broke firearms offenses by shooting a gun off in a police station. It also noted that Takashi ran away from the police while he was being investigated in connection with the killings.

"You chose lust for money over human life in a cruel and inhuman manner that makes correction difficult," the presiding judge ruled as the death sentences were issued to the father and son.

In a separate trial, the Fukuoka High Court upheld death sentences against Mami and Takahiro Kitamura in December last year. Both the 48-year-old Mrs. Kitamura and her 23-year-old son have appealed against the verdicts.

The lower court ruled that on Sept. 16, 2004, Takashi and Takahiro Kitamura robbed and killed 15-year-old Joji Takami. Two days later, the Kitamura boys and their parents killed 58-year-old Sayoko Takami, Joji's mother, and stole 260,000 yen from her, then killed another son, 18-year-old Tatsuyuki, and his 17-year-old friend, Junichi Hara, dumping the bodies in a river.

On Sept. 22 the same year, Jitsuo Kitamura fired off a shot in the Omuta Police Station amid a botched suicide attempt. Finally, on Nov. 13, 2004, Takashi Kitamura ran away from the Kurume Branch of the Fukuoka Public Prosecutors Office in the middle of his trial.

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