THE world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been freed more than 50 years after he was convicted.
Former boxer Iwao Hakamada, 88, was jailed in 1968 for quadruple murder and spent decades waiting to be executed.
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Iwao Hakamada, center, pictured last year with his sister, right Credit: AFP
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Former boxer jailed for murderCredit: AP: Associated Press
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Hakamada’s older sister Hideko pictured after the green light was given for a retrial in March 2023 Credit: Getty
But today a Japanese court found Hakamada not guilty in a retrial – overturning an earlier wrongful conviction after a decade on death row.
He spent most of his time behind bars in solitary confinement, in fear of execution.
He spent a total of 48 years in prison – more than 45 of which he was on death row.
The Shizuoka District Court’s acquittal of Hakamada makes him the fifth death row inmate to be found not guilty in a retrial in Japan’s post-war criminal justice system.
The presiding judge, Koshi Kunii, said the court had admitted multiple fabrications of evidence and that Hakamada was not guilty.
Hakamada was convicted of murder in 1966 when they killed a company manager and three members of his family and set fire to their home in central Japan.
He was sentenced to death in 1968, but was not executed due to protracted appeals and retrials.
It took 27 years for the supreme court to reject his first appeal for a retrial.
His second appeal for a retrial was filed in 2008 by his sister Hideko Hakamada, who is now 91 years old.
Hakamada was then released from prison in 2014 when a court ordered a retrial.
I’ve saved hundreds of serial killers from death row and bonded with monsters who slaughter victims in shredders… even the worst criminals don’t deserve to die
After his release, Hakamada served his sentence at home because his poor health and age made him a low escape risk.
New evidence suggests that his conviction may have been based on fabricated allegations by investigators.
The court finally ruled in his favor in 2023, paving the way for the latest retrial, which began last October.
At a final hearing at a Shizuoka court in May before today’s decision, prosecutors again sought the death penalty.
This prompted criticism from human rights groups that prosecutors were trying to prolong the trial.
During the investigation that followed his arrest, Hakamada initially denied the allegations, but later confessed.
He later said he was forced to confess under violent police interrogation.
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Hakamada was convicted of quadruple murder in 1966. Credit: Getty
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Hakamada’s sister Hideko leads her supporters in court todayCredit: AFP
The main point of contention was five blood-stained clothes that investigators said Hakamada wore during the crime and hid in a container of fermented soybean paste, or miso.
The clothes were found more than a year after his arrest.
A 2023 Tokyo High Court ruling acknowledged scientific experiments that found clothing soaked in mass for more than a year turned too dark to see bloodstains, highlighting a possible fabrication by investigators.
Defense attorneys and earlier retrial rulings said blood samples did not match Hakamada’s DNA and the pants prosecutors submitted as evidence were too small for the defendant.
Supporters say Hakamada’s nearly half-century in custody has taken a devastating toll on his mental health.
His sister Hideko Hakamada devoted about half of her life to proving his innocence.
‘GUILLY ACCUSED’
Before Thursday’s verdict, she said she was in a never-ending battle.
She said: “It is so difficult to start a retrial.
“Not only Iwao, but I’m sure there are other people who have been wrongly accused and are crying.
“I want an overhaul of the criminal code to make retrials more readily available.”
Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of Seven advanced nations (G7) that retain the death penalty.
A Japanese government survey found that a large majority of the public supports executions.
Executions in Japan are carried out in secret and prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning they are hanged.
In 2007, Japan began releasing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited.
The longest-serving death row inmates
SOME of the world’s longest-serving death row inmates have spent decades awaiting execution, either because of legal appeals, delays or changes in the legal status of their sentences.
Here are some examples:
Gary Alvord (USA): On death row for more than 39 years before he died of natural causes in 2013, Alvord was one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the United States. He was sentenced to death in 1974 in Florida for triple murder, but his execution was delayed due to legal and mental health problems.
Iwao Hakamada (Japan): Hakamada spent more than four decades on death row in Japan, starting in 1968, before being released after a court ruled there was a possibility he had been wrongfully convicted. Hakamada, a former boxer, was sentenced to death for quadruple murder, and his case is now one of Japan’s most famous wrongful convictions.
Raymond Riles (USA): Riles holds the record as one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the US, having been on death row in Texas for over 45 years (since 1976). His execution was delayed due to problems related to his mental capacity.
David Carpenter (USA): Known as the “Road Killer,” Carpenter has been on California’s death row since 1984. He was convicted of multiple murders committed in the 1970s and early 1980s. Carpenter’s case has been delayed due to California’s notoriously slow death penalty process and pending appeals, and he remains on death row at more than 90 years old.
Ronald Sanford (USA): Sanford has been in prison in Indiana since he was 13 after being convicted of a double murder in 1987. Although he was not technically on death row, his life sentence without the possibility of parole has drawn comparisons to long terms on death row. His case raises questions related to sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment.
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Source: HIS Education