A Japanese man said to have spent the world’s longest sentence on death row was acquitted of murder on Thursday, his legal team said, wrongly convicted for crimes committed nearly 60 years ago. After this his family’s search for justice ended.
The Shizuoka District Court acquitted Iwao Hakamada, 88, in a retrial of the murders of four people in the central Japanese region in 1966.
Hideko Hakamada, who fought for decades to clear her younger brother’s name, said it felt good to hear the words “not guilty” in the courtroom.
“When I heard it, I was so touched and happy, I couldn’t stop crying,” she said in a televised briefing.
Hakamada spent 45 years on death row before a court ordered his release and retrial in 2014 amid doubts about the evidence on which his conviction was based.
The former boxer, who has been living with his sister since his release, was accused of stabbing his former boss and family to death before burning down their house.
Although he briefly confessed to the murders, he retracted his confession and pleaded innocent during the trial, but was nevertheless sentenced to death in 1968, which was upheld by the Supreme Court of Japan in 1980. kept.
Norimichi Kumamoto, one of three Shizuoka court judges who sentenced Hakamada to death, petitioned the Supreme Court for a retrial in 2008, but was rejected.
Hakamada’s lawyers had argued that DNA testing of the blood-stained clothing showed it belonged to their client.
Rights group Amnesty International called the acquittal a “pivotal moment for justice” and urged Japan to end the death penalty.
Amnesty said, “After suffering wrongful imprisonment for almost half a century and waiting 10 years for a retrial, this verdict is an important recognition of the grave injustice he endured for most of his life.”
“This ends an inspiring fight to clear his name,” it said in a statement.
The government’s top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, declined to comment on individual cases, but acknowledged the Shizuoka court’s decision.
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