1966 Family of Four Murder Case
Retrial Court: "Investigative Agency Fabricated Evidence"
Former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada (88), who was sentenced to death in 1980 for the murder of four family members in Japan, was acquitted in the second trial.
On the 26th, Nihon Keizai Shimbun (hereafter 'Nikkei') reported that the Shizuoka District Court acquitted Hakamada. The court stated that the reason for the acquittal was "evidence tampering by investigative authorities." Nikkei explained that it has been about 35 years since a death row inmate was acquitted in a retrial, and this is the fifth such case since the end of World War II.
Former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada (88), accused of murdering his family, was acquitted after 58 years in a retrial on the 26th. [Photo by AP]
Hakamada, a former professional boxer, was working at a miso manufacturing company in 1966. He was accused of murdering four members of the family of the company's executive director and was sentenced to death in 1980. The evidence at the time included five pieces of clothing found in a miso tank 14 months after the incident, which contained Hakamada's bloodstains. Hakamada's defense argued that "the bloodstains are fake evidence because they appear red." This is because bloodstains turn black, not red, after more than a year. Additionally, since 2008, it was proven that the bloodstains on the clothing and Hakamada's blood DNA did not match.
48 Years Imprisoned... Holds the World Record for Longest Imprisoned Death Row Inmate
Hakamada continued to claim his innocence even after being sentenced to death. After serving 48 years, a decision was made in 2014 to release him and allow a retrial. The young man who was 30 years old at the time had already become a 78-year-old elderly man. However, the retrial decision was canceled due to the prosecution's appeal. Hakamada's defense filed a special appeal, and after the Supreme Court issued a remand decision in 2020, the retrial was finally reopened in March of last year.
The retrial held in October last year cleared Hakamada's name after 15 hearings. In 2013, while still imprisoned, Hakamada was listed in the Guinness World Records as the world's longest-imprisoned death row inmate.
Meanwhile, Japan is one of the countries that still carry out executions, but no executions were carried out last year. In 2023, Japanese courts sentenced three people to death, but no executions were actually carried out. In 2022, one inmate serving time for the 2008 'random killing' incident near Akihabara Station in central Tokyo was executed, and in 2021, three executions were carried out. In 2020, like in 2023, no executions took place. As of the end of 2023, there are 106 death row inmates imprisoned in detention facilities across Japan.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
