Tokyo
CNN
—
In the 1960s, Hakamada Iwao was put on death row after his blood-stained trousers were found in a miso vat and he was allegedly forced to confess.
More than 50 years later, the world’s longest serving death row inmate has been acquitted, state broadcaster NHK said.
A Japanese court on Thursday acquitted 88-year-old Hakamada, who was wrongfully sentenced to death for killing his family in 1968, ending a lengthy legal battle that drew global attention to Japan’s criminal justice system and fuelled calls for the abolition of the death penalty.
During the retrial hearing, Hakamada’s defense team argued that new information proved his innocence, but the prosecution argued that there was sufficient evidence that he should be executed by hanging.
A former professional boxer, Hakamada retired in 1961 and took a job at a soybean processing factory in Shizuoka Prefecture, a decision that would ruin the rest of his life.
Five years later, when his boss, his wife and their two children were found stabbed to death in their home in June, Hakamada, a divorced man who was working at a bar at the time, became police’s prime suspect.
After days of relentless interrogation, Hakamada initially admitted to the charges but later changed his accusations, claiming that police had forced him to confess through beatings and threats.
Despite repeated claims that police had fabricated the evidence, the judges sentenced him to death by a 2-1 vote, with the dissenting judge so demoralized by his failure to block the sentence that he resigned from the bar six months later.
Hakamada, who has maintained his innocence ever since, spent more than half his life awaiting execution by hanging before new evidence led to his release 10 years ago.
After DNA testing of blood found on the trousers showed no match for Hakamada or the victims, the Shizuoka District Court ordered a retrial in 2014. Hakamada was released while awaiting his court appearance due to his advanced age and mental instability.
The Tokyo High Court initially rejected the request for a retrial for unclear reasons, but in 2023, following a Supreme Court order, it agreed to grant Hakamada a retrial.
Retrials are rare in Japan, with 99% of cases resulting in a guilty verdict, according to the Ministry of Justice website.
While his supporters are celebrating Hakamada’s acquittal, the good news is unlikely to reach the defendant himself.
His sister Hideko, 91, who has long protested his innocence, said that after decades of imprisonment, Mr Hakamada’s mental state had deteriorated and he had “withdrawn into his own world”.
Hakamada rarely spoke and showed no interest in others, Hideko told CNN.
“Sometimes he smiles happily, but that’s when he’s delusional,” Hideko said. “He can’t recognize reality, so we’ve never even discussed the trial with Iwao.”
However, Hakamada’s case is not always about one man.
The case raises questions about Japan’s reliance on confessions to obtain convictions, and some say it is one reason why Japan should abolish the death penalty.
“I am against the death penalty,” Hideko says. “Death row inmates are human beings too.”
Japan is the only G7 country outside the United States that retains the death penalty, but no executions were carried out in 2023, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Hiroshi Ichikawa, a former prosecutor not involved in Hakamada’s case, said prosecutors in Japan have historically been encouraged to obtain confessions before seeking corroborating evidence, even if it means blackmailing or manipulating defendants into pleading guilty.
Ichikawa said the emphasis on confessions is what allows Japan to maintain such a high conviction rate in a country where an acquittal can severely damage a prosecutor’s career.
Hakamada was convicted based on stained clothing and a confession coerced by him and his lawyer, and served 46 years in prison.
Hakamada’s lawyer, Hideyo Ogawa, told CNN that his client was detained and interrogated for more than 12 hours a day for 23 days without a lawyer present.
“The Japanese judicial system at the time in particular was a system that allowed investigative agencies to take advantage of secrecy to commit illegal crimes and investigative crimes,” Ogawa said.
Chiara Sangiorgio, death penalty adviser at Amnesty International, said Hakamada’s case was “emblematic of many of the problems with Japan’s criminal justice system”.
San Giorgio said death row inmates in Japan are typically held in solitary confinement and have limited contact with the outside world.
Executions are typically carried out in “secrecy” and with little or no notice, with families and lawyers typically only notified after the execution has taken place.
Hakamada has spent most of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit.
But despite his poor mental health, over the past decade, Hakamada has come to enjoy some of the small joys that come with living freely.
In February, they started keeping two cats. “Iwao has become attentive to the cats, concerned about them and caring for them. It’s been a big change,” Hideko says.
Every afternoon, a group of Hakamada’s supporters take him out for a drive, where “he buys loads of pastries and juice,” Hideko said.
“I hope he continues to live a long and free life,” she added.
