World’s longest-serving death row inmate found not guilty

Tokyo: A Japanese court has ruled that an 88-year-old former boxer was not guilty in a retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder, reversing an earlier wrongful conviction after nearly five decades on death row.

Iwao Hakamada’s acquittal by the Shizuoka District Court makes him the fifth death-row convict to be found not guilty in a retrial in post-war Japanese criminal justice. The case could rekindle a debate around abolishing the death penalty in the country.

The presiding judge, Koshi Kunii, said the court acknowledged multiple fabrications of evidence and that Hakamada was not the culprit, NHK said.

Iwao Hakamada, left, an 88-year-old former boxer who was on death row for nearly five decades, is helped by a supporter as he goes for a walk in Hamamatsu, central Japan.Credit: AP

Hakamada was convicted of murder in the 1966 killing of a company manager and three of his family members, and setting a fire to their home in central Japan. He was sentenced to death in 1968, but was not executed due to lengthy appeals and the retrial process.

He spent 48 years behind bars – most of them on death row – making him the world’s longest-serving death row inmate.

It took 27 years for the top court to deny his first appeal for retrial. His second appeal for a retrial was filed in 2008 by his sister Hideko Hakamada, now 91, and the court finally ruled in his favour in 2023, paving the way for the latest retrial that began in October.

Hideko Hakamada, sister of 88-year-old former boxer Iwao Hakamada, has been instrumental in her brother’s appeal.Credit: AP

Hakamada was released from prison in 2014 when a court ordered a retrial based on new evidence suggesting his conviction may have been based on fabricated accusations by investigators, but was not cleared of the conviction. After his release, Hakamada served his sentence at home because his frail health and age made him a low escape risk.

At a final hearing at the Shizuoka court in May before Thursday’s decision, prosecutors again demanded the death penalty, triggering criticism from rights groups that prosecutors were trying to prolong the trial.

The extremely high hurdles for retrials have also prompted legal experts to call for a revision to the system.

During the investigation that followed his arrest, Hakamada initially denied the accusations, then confessed. He later said he was forced to confess under violent interrogation by police.

A major point of contention was five pieces of blood-stained clothing that investigators claimed Hakamada had worn during the crime and hid in a tank of fermented soybean paste, or miso. The clothes were found more than a year after his arrest.

A Tokyo High Court ruling in 2023 acknowledged scientific experiments that clothing soaked in miso for more than a year turns too dark for bloodstains to be spotted, noting a possible fabrication by investigators.

Defence lawyers and earlier retrial decisions said the blood samples did not match Hakamada’s DNA, and trousers that prosecutors submitted as evidence were too small for Hakamada and did not fit when he tried them on.

Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the G7 nations that retain capital punishment. A survey by the Japanese government showed an overwhelming majority of the public support executions.

Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan and prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning they are hanged. In 2007, authorities began disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited.

Supporters say Hakamada’s nearly half-century detention has taken a toll on his mental health. Most of his time behind bars was spent in solitary confinement, fearing execution. He spent a total of 48 years in prison, more than 45 of them on death row.

His sister has devoted around half of her life to win his innocence. Before the ruling, she said she was in a never-ending battle.

“It is so difficult to get a retrial started,” she told reporters in Tokyo. “Not just Iwao, but I’m sure there are other people who have been wrongly accused and crying. … I want the criminal law revised so that retrials are more easily available.”

AP

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