Tokyo - A Japanese woman who killed four people and poisoned 63 with arsenic-laced curry lost her appeal against a death sentence on Tuesday, a Supreme Court spokesperson said.
The country's top court rejected an appeal by Masumi Hayashi, a 47-year-old mother of four, against the sentence that was handed down by a district court in 2002 and upheld by a higher court in 2005.
The bizarre case gripped Japan and led to a rash of copycat poisonings.
Hayashi was convicted for mixing arsenic into curry served at a community festival in 1998, killing two children and two adults, in Wakayama prefecture, 450 kilometres south-west of Tokyo.
In the original trial, prosecutors were unable to present hard evidence linking her to the deaths and relied on circumstantial evidence. - Sapa-AFP