Righting Wrongs

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The world’s longest-serving death row inmate, Iwao Hakamata, who was convicted of murdering four people in 1966, was acquitted Thursday in a retrial in a case that has sparked debate over the fairness of Japan’s justice system, NBC News reported.

Hakamata, now 88, spent 45 years behind bars waiting to be hanged before a court ordered his release and a retrial in 2014, amid doubts about the credibility of the evidence against him.

Hakamata retired from a career in professional boxing in 1961 and sought employment at a soybean processing plant in Shizuoka, reported CNN. Five years later, Hakamata, no longer working at the plant but as a bartender, became the prime suspect in the murder of his soybean company’s former manager and his wife and children, who were all found stabbed to death in their home that was also set on fire.

Initially, Hakamata pleaded guilty after days of questioning. He later changed his statements to proclaim his innocence, arguing that the police had beaten and threatened him to secure his confession and fabricated the evidence against him.

The evidence in question was blood-splattered trousers soaking in a tank of miso. Hakamata was sentenced to death in a 2-1 decision by judges and languished on death row for 45 years.

After a recent DNA test of the blood revealed no match to either Hakamata or the victims, the Shizuoka District Court ordered a retrial in 2014. Then in 2023, Japan’s Supreme Court approved the retrial, leading to the acquittal.

The case has sparked outrage in Japan, and a debate over the fairness of the Japanese justice system, the incessant use of confessions to get convictions, and the use of the death penalty in the country.

According to the Japan Times, Hakamata’s case underscores the extreme length of time it takes to secure a retrial in Japan. Retrials are rare in Japan, and 99 percent of cases result in convictions, CNN noted.

Japan is one of the few developed nations that still use the death penalty.