Exonerated after spending 46 years on death row. Iwao Hakamada, a Japanese man now aged 88, has just been acquitted by the Shizuoka Court during his review trial.
This inmate, a former boxer who became an employee in a miso (fermented soya) manufacturing company, Iwao Hakamada, was accused of having murdered his boss and three members of the latter’s family in 1966. In 1968, he was sentenced to death by the Shizuoka Court.
At the time, he initially confessed to being the perpetrator of these murders before recanting, citing brutal methods during interrogations, according to Amnesty International. However, his death sentence was confirmed in 1980 by the Japanese Supreme Court.
But his lawyers said the evidence was likely fabricated by police or investigators at the time to justify his arrest and conviction.
DNA didn’t match
In 2014, a court admitted doubts about his guilt after genetic tests undermined incriminating evidence at the heart of the prosecution’s case: DNA found on bloody clothes did not match his. He was then released.
But the path to obtaining a review trial was particularly long and tortuous. On appeal from the prosecution, the Tokyo High Court in 2018 questioned the reliability of the DNA tests and overturned the 2014 decision, without sending Iwao Hakamada back to prison.
In 2020, a new twist: the Supreme Court overturned the decision which prevented Iwao Hakamada from being retried.
During the closing arguments for his review trial last May, prosecutors again called for the death penalty, citing his guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt”. But his lawyers and his many supporters, the leader of which is his sister Hideko, 91, are calling for his acquittal. This time, during the verdict, the judge declared that the Court considered the accused “to be innocent”.
According to the Japanese newspaper Mainichi, this would be the fifth time that prosecutors in Japan have again called for the death penalty in review trials of former death row inmates. In the first four cases, acquittals were ultimately pronounced.
Significant psychological aftereffects
According to those close to him, Iwao Hakamada suffers from significant psychological after-effects after having spent nearly five decades on death row, often in solitary confinement, and where each day could be his last, as provided for by Japanese law. “We fought a seemingly endless battle for so long,” his sister Hideko said. And added: “But this time, I believe that the fight will end,” she added, confident in its outcome.
Very early Thursday morning, hundreds of people lined up outside the Shizuoka Court (west of Tokyo) to try to get a place for the highly anticipated verdict. For many demonstrators, Iwao has become the symbol for calling for the abolition of the death penalty.
Among them was Atsushi Zukeran, who wore a T-shirt reading “Free Hakamada Now.” “I am absolutely certain that he will be acquitted. But part of me will not be able to fully celebrate the acquittal,” he said, adding: “Her case is a painful reminder of how Japan’s criminal justice system needs to change.”
However, neither public opinion in the polls nor political leaders intend to abolish it. In December 2023, the archipelago had just over 100 death row inmates in its prisons.
