A Japanese court acquitted Thursday an 88-year-old former professional boxer in a high-profile retrial decades after he was sentenced to death over a 1966 quadruple murder, saying investigators had fabricated evidence.
Iwao Hakamada spent nearly half a century on death row before new evidence led to his release from incarceration in 2014, leading to his being recognized that year as the world's longest-serving death row prisoner.
Hakamada's case marks the fifth time in postwar Japan that retrials have resulted in acquittals after the death penalty was given, with the four previous rulings finalized without an appeal by prosecutors.
In the ruling, the Shizuoka District Court said "there were three instances of fabrication of evidence," including five pieces of clothing that Hakamada was alleged to have worn during the incident and his confession, which the court said was forced. The clothing evidence played a key role in his conviction.
On the clothing items, which were found in a miso tank near the site of the murders 14 months later, the court backed the defense's claim that the reddish color could not have been bloodstains from the time of the incident as bloodstains on clothing would not remain red when immersed in miso for more than year.
Presiding Judge Koshi Kunii also said in the ruling that Hakamada's statements of confession were "forced by inflicting physical and mental pain," calling his questioning "inhumane."
Hakamada's mental state deteriorated due to his long incarceration, with signs of psychological strain manifesting from around 1980, when his death sentence was finalized. His 91-year-old sister appeared in court hearings on behalf of her brother since the retrial began last October.
"We've won an acquittal," Hideko told their supporters in front of the district court. "Thank you for all your support over the years."
After handing down the ruling, Kunii apologized to Hideko, saying, "As a court, we really feel sorry that the trial took so much time."
The ruling came after the Tokyo High Court ordered a retrial in March last year, saying there was a strong possibility that the five pieces of clothing had been planted by investigators.
The high court in 2018 had initially decided not to reopen the case but it reversed course after the Supreme Court in 2020 ordered it to reexamine its ruling.
The focus now shifts to whether prosecutors, who again demanded the death penalty in the retrial, will appeal Thursday's ruling. The defense team has urged prosecutors not to challenge an acquittal.
"We will closely examine the ruling and deal with it appropriately," said Kenshi Konagamitsu, deputy chief prosecutor at the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutors Office.
It took more than nine years to reopen the case after the Shizuoka District Court granted him a retrial in 2014, as prosecutors filed an objection against the decision.
Hakamada first appealed for a retrial in 1981, and the decades that elapsed before his retrial finally started last year have led legal experts to call for revising the retrial system, which sets a high hurdle for the convicted to reopen a case.
Some are also hoping that debate over abolishing the death penalty will gain momentum in Japan, since Hakamada still suffers from post-incarceration syndrome, exacerbated by decades of not knowing when he might be executed and severely restricted contact with anyone outside his cell.
The former boxer was a live-in employee at a miso maker when he was arrested in 1966 for allegedly killing the firm's senior managing director, his wife and two of their children. They were found dead from stab wounds at their house in Shizuoka Prefecture, which had been burned down.
Indicted for murder, robbery and arson, his death sentence was finalized based on a ruling that blood marks on the five clothing items found in the miso tank matched the blood types of the victims and Hakamada.
He initially confessed to the killings during intense interrogation, but he pleaded not guilty at his trial.
© KYODO
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