An 88-year-old former boxer, Iwao Hakamada, has been acquitted in a retrial for a quadruple murder in 1966, overturning his earlier wrongful conviction and decades on death row. Hakamada was sentenced to death in 1968 for the killing of a company manager and three of his family members, but new evidence suggested his conviction was based on fabricated accusations. This ruling makes him the fifth death-row convict to be found not guilty in post-war Japanese criminal justice, sparking a debate about abolishing the death penalty in Japan.
Hakamada spent 48 years in prison, the majority of them on death row, making him the world’s longest-serving death row inmate. His sister, Hideko Hakamada, who has dedicated half of her life to proving his innocence, emphasized the difficulty of getting a retrial started and called for a revision to the criminal law to make retrials more easily available.
In the retrial process, it was revealed that evidence had been fabricated, including blood-stained clothing that did not match Hakamada’s DNA and trousers that were too small for him. The high hurdles for retrials and the secretive nature of executions in Japan have led to calls for a revision of the legal system.
Hakamada’s release from prison in 2014, his age, and frail health made him a low risk for escape. The court ruling in his favor in 2023 paved the way for the retrial that ultimately led to his acquittal, shedding light on potential flaws in the criminal justice system in Japan.
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