In a landmark decision, Iwao Hakamada, an 88-year-old man and the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, was acquitted by a Japanese court after spending more than five decades on death row.
Hakamada was initially convicted in 1968 for the quadruple murder of his boss, his boss’s wife, and their two children.
However, new evidence questioning the integrity of the case has led to his retrial and exoneration.
Hakamada was sentenced based on key evidence, including bloodstained clothes found in a tank of miso.
Despite denying the charges, he later confessed under intense interrogations, which reportedly lasted up to 12 hours a day. In recent years, his defense team argued that DNA evidence from the clothes did not match Hakamada, casting doubt on his guilt.
In 2014, a judge called for a retrial, noting that the clothes were not his and expressing concerns about the fabricated evidence.
On Thursday, the Shizuoka District Court declared him innocent, a decision celebrated by his supporters. Though Hakamada was not present due to his deteriorating mental health, his sister Hideko, who has long fought for his release, expressed immense relief.
Hakamada’s case is a rare instance of a death row retrial in Japan and highlights concerns about the country’s capital punishment system and the potential for miscarriages of justice.
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