World’s longest-serving death row prisoner wins landmark acquittal in 1966 murder retrial in Japan

SHIZUOKA, Japan: A Japanese court acquitted on Thursday an 88-year-old former professional boxer in a high-profile retrial decades after he was sentenced to death over a 1966 quadruple murder, saying investigators had fabricated evidence.
Iwao Hakamata spent nearly half a century on death row before new evidence led to his release from incarceration in 2014, leading to his being recognised that year as the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner.
Hakamata’s case marks the fifth time in postwar Japan that retrials have resulted in acquittals after the death penalty was given, with the four previous rulings finalised without an appeal by prosecutors.
The focus now shifts to whether prosecutors, who again demanded the death penalty in the retrial, will appeal Thursday’s ruling. The defence team has urged prosecutors not to challenge an acquittal.
In the ruling, the Shizuoka District Court said “there were three instances of fabrication of evidence,” including five pieces of clothing that Hakamata was alleged to have worn during the incident and his confession, which the court said was forced. The clothing evidence played a key role in his conviction.
On the clothing items, which were found in a miso tank near the site of the murders 14 months later, the court backed the defence’s claim that the reddish colour could not have been bloodstains from the time of the incident as bloodstains on clothing would not remain red when immersed in miso for more than year.
While prosecutors argued the clothing were worn by Hakamata during the incident, Presiding Judge Koshi Kunii said investigators put the bloodstains and hid them at a time close to their discovery.
The ruling pointed out that it is presumable that investigators resorted to fabrication of the key evidence “to ensure his conviction,” as Hakamata pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial although he had confessed to the killings during his questioning.
Regarding his statements of confession, the judge said they were “effectively fabricated,” as they were “forced by inflicting physical and mental pain,” calling his interrogation “inhumane.”
“Over the years, different conclusions and opinions have been presented by each court,” Kunii said in concluding the ruling. “He cannot be identified as the culprit,” based on the cardinal rule in criminal trials that giving a defendant the benefit of the doubt, he said.
Hakamata’s mental state deteriorated due to his long incarceration, with signs of psychological strain manifesting from around 1980, when his death sentence was finalised. His 91-year-old sister had appeared in court hearings on behalf of her brother since the retrial began last October.
“We’ve won an acquittal,” Hideko told their supporters in front of the district court. “Thank you for all your support over the years.”
After handing down the ruling, Kunii apologised to Hideko on behalf of the court, saying “we really feel sorry that the trial took so much time.”
The ruling came after the Tokyo High Court ordered a retrial in March last year, saying there was a strong possibility that the five pieces of clothing had been planted by investigators.
The high court in 2018 had initially decided not to reopen the case but reversed course after the Supreme Court in 2020 ordered it to reexamine its ruling.
“The ruling was enough for prosecutors to give up appealing,” Hakamata’s lead lawyer Hideyo Ogawa said.
Meanwhile, Kenshi Konagamitsu, deputy chief prosecutor at the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutors Office, said, “We will closely examine the ruling and deal with it appropriately.”
It took more than nine years to reopen the case after the Shizuoka District Court granted him a retrial in 2014, as prosecutors filed an objection against the decision.
Hakamata first appealed for a retrial in 1981, and the decades that elapsed before his retrial finally started last year have led legal experts to call for revising the retrial system, which sets a high hurdle for the convicted to reopen a case.
Some are also hoping that the debate over abolishing the death penalty will gain momentum in Japan, given that Hakamata still suffers from post-incarceration syndrome, worsened by decades of not knowing when he might be executed and severely limited restricted contact with anyone outside his cell.
On Thursday, Hakamata, who was exempted from attending court proceedings, spent his time as usual in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, where he lives. He went out for a routine walk, visiting a temple and eating at a noodle restaurant.
The former boxer was a live-in employee at a miso maker when he was arrested in 1966 for allegedly killing the firm’s senior managing director, his wife and two of their children. They were found dead from stab wounds at their house in Shizuoka prefecture, which had been burned down.
Indicted for murder, robbery and arson, his death sentence was finalised based on a ruling that blood marks on the five clothing items found in the miso tank matched the blood types of the victims and Hakamata.