Japanese court acquits man in 1966 murder trial after decades on death row: NPR

TOKYO – A Japanese court on Thursday found an 88-year-old former boxer not guilty in a retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder, overturning an earlier wrongful conviction after he spent decades on death row.

With the acquittal by the Shizuoka District Court, Iwao Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate to be found not guilty in a retrial under Japan's post-war criminal law. The case could reignite a debate about abolishing the death penalty in Japan.

The court's presiding judge, Koshi Kunii, said the court had acknowledged a number of cases of evidence falsification and that Hakamada was not the perpetrator, NHK reported.

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

He spent 48 years behind bars – most of that time on death row – making him the longest-serving death row inmate in the world.

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

Hakamada was released from prison in 2014 when a court ordered a retrial based on new evidence suggesting his conviction was based on fabricated allegations by investigators. However, the charge was not overturned. After his release, Hakamada served his sentence at home because he was little of a flight risk due to his poor health and age.

At a final hearing in the Shizuoka court in May before Thursday's decision, prosecutors again called for the death penalty, sparking criticism from human rights groups that prosecutors were trying to drag out the trial.

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

During the investigation following his arrest, Hakamada initially denied the charges but then confessed. He later said he was coerced into confessing by brutal police interrogation.

A major point of contention was five bloodstained items of clothing that investigators said Hakamada wore during the crime and hid in a tank of fermented soybean paste (miso). The items were found more than a year after his arrest.

A 2023 ruling by the Tokyo High Court upheld scientific experiments that showed clothes soaked in miso for more than a year turned too dark to detect blood stains, and suggested it may have been a fabrication by investigators.

According to defense lawyers and previous retrial rulings, the blood samples did not match Hakamada's DNA. In addition, the pants the prosecution presented as evidence were too small for Hakamada and did not fit him when he tried them on.

Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of Seven industrialized nations that retain the death penalty. A survey conducted by the Japanese government found that an overwhelming majority of the population supports executions.

Executions in Japan are carried out in secret, and prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning of their execution. In 2007, Japan began disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosure is still limited.

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

His sister Hideko Hakamada has spent about half her life fighting for his innocence. Before Thursday's verdict, she said she was in a never-ending battle.

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