Japan Acquits World's Longest-Serving Death Row Prisoner After 46 Years (Image-X/WBCBoxing Twitter)
A Japanese man, who spent the world’s largest time on death row was officially acquitted of murder on Thursday. Former boxer ends the decades long search of justice, after wrongful conviction of quadruple murder committed on 1966.
This brings an end to the legal saga, Iwao Hakamada, 88, who was wrongly convicted for the murder of his employer and his family. He was released by the Shizuoka district court. This case has exposed the deep flaws associated with the Japanese criminal system and the use of capital punishment.
The case of Iwao Hakamada
This ordeal of Hakamada, a former boxer began in June 1966, when his employer and his family (wife and two kids) were found murdered in their home in Shizuoka of Japan. The family had been stabbed to death and the house was set on fire. This case shook the country and reflected in the conviction of an innocent.
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Hakamata, who worked at the family’s soybean processing plant became the prime suspect and was arrested by the police. And the 20 days of relentless police interrogation made him to confess to the murders. But only to retract the confession during his trail, claiming that it had been coerced under extreme duress. He later alleged that police had beaten him and threatened his life to extract the admission of guilt.
During his trial he was sentenced to death in 1968 by the Shizuoka District Court and a penalty was upheld by the Japan’s Supreme Court in 1980. Later, Norimichi Kumamoto, one of the three judges at the Shizuoka court who had sentenced Hakamada to death, petitioned the Supreme Court for a retrial in 2008, but the plea was rejected. Moreover, Hakamada’s lawyers argued that the DNA test on the bloodstained clothing proved that it was not his.
The high court had initially decided not to reopen Hakamata’s case – a cause celebre for opponents of capital punishment – but reversed its decision after the supreme court ordered it to reconsider in 2020.
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Hakamata’s 91-year-old sister, Hideko Hakamada, who has campaigned tirelessly on behalf of her brother, told reporters before Thursday’s verdict: “For so long we have fought a battle that has felt endless. But this time, I believe it will be settled.” Hundreds of people queued outside the district court on Thursday and the supporters held up banners demanding Hakamada’s acquittal.
Japanese Capital Punishment
Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of Seven advanced nations that retain capital punishment. In this mode of punishment, executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan and prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning they are hanged.
