A Japanese death row inmate who held the record for the longest incarceration on death row worldwide on murder charges has been completely cleared of murder charges after 58 years.
According to Kyodo News and other foreign media on the 8th, Naomi Unemoto, Japan's Prosecutor General, announced that he would not appeal the recent acquittal of former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada (88), who had been sentenced to death for robbery-murder, in a retrial.
In a statement, Prosecutor General Unemoto said about Mr. Hakamada, "As a result, he was in a legally unstable situation for a considerable length of time," and added, "I am sorry."
This is the fifth time since World War II that a death row inmate in Japan has been acquitted through a retrial.
Hakamada Iwao's sister, Hideko Hakamada, told reporters after the prosecution's statement, "I finally feel that it has come to a conclusion."
Mr. Hakamada was charged in 1966 with murdering a family of four at a miso factory in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Honshu, where he worked. He maintained his innocence during the trial, but his death sentence was confirmed in 1980. Two retrial requests followed. In 2014, the Shizuoka District Court decided to start a retrial due to suspicions of evidence tampering, and Mr. Hakamada was released that year. As of 2010, he was listed in the Guinness World Records as the "world's longest-incarcerated death row inmate."
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