Japan's courts overturn decades-old death sentence for Iwao Hakamada

Japanese court acquitted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada. The man had been sentenced to death for the alleged quadruple murder of a family. This concludes a saga lasting over 50 years. He waited 45 years for the verdict in solitary confinement.

Iwao Hakamada, a former boxer, was sentenced to death in 1968 for murdering a company manager and three members of his family and setting their home on fire in central Japan. "He spent a total of 48 years in prison - with more than 45 of them on death row," reports The Sun.

Court chairman Koshi Kunii stated that the evidence in Hakamada's case was fabricated, and Hakamada was not guilty. Hakamada initially denied the charges, then confessed, later claiming he did so under the pressure of brutal police interrogations.

Key evidence included five pieces of clothing with bloodstains, which investigators claimed Hakamada wore during the crime. Scientific experiments, however, showed that clothing soaked in soy miso paste for over a year darkens to the extent that bloodstains become invisible. These pieces of evidence were, as stated, possibly fabricated.

In 2008, Hakamada's sister Hideko filed a second request for a retrial. It was only in 2023 that the court finally granted the request, paving the way for the trial to begin in October. It is worth noting that since 2014, Hakamada has been serving his sentence at home due to numerous doubts about his case. The court considered the risk of escape minimal, given his poor health.

During the final hearing in May 2023, the prosecution again demanded the death penalty, which met with sharp criticism from human rights organizations. Japan, along with the United States, are the only countries in the G7 group that maintain the death penalty.