(Source)
The Shizuoka District Court on Thursday acquitted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, clearing him of all charges in a retrial of the 1966 murders of four people. The decision ended his family’s decades-long fight for justice after a wrongful conviction that the court found was based on fabricated evidence.
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Fabricated evidence: Hakamada, a former professional boxer, was accused of stabbing his former boss and his family to death before setting fire to their home in central Japan. He was initially sentenced to death in 1968, a ruling that was upheld by Japan’s Supreme Court in 1980. Before being granted a new trial in 2014, he spent 45 years on death row, making him the world’s longest-serving death row inmate.
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Celebrated acquittalKey to Hakamada’s eventual acquittal was DNA testing on blood-stained clothing, which showed the blood was not his. A Tokyo High Court ruling Last year, it was determined that investigators tried to frame him by fabricating and planting evidence. His sister, Hideko Hakamada, who has been a tireless advocate for her brother’s exoneration, expressed her overwhelming relief and joy at the verdict, saying: “When I heard that, I was so moved and happy that I couldn’t stop crying .” Amnesty International also celebrated the acquittal, calling it a “crucial moment for justice” and urging Japan to reconsider its position on the death penalty.
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