Serpo
27th March 2014, 02:43 PM
Japan releases world’s longest serving death row inmate because evidence that put him behind bars for 45 YEARS was probably made up
Iwao Hakamada, 78, was convicted of the murder of a family in 1966
He has spent the last 45 years behind bars on death row, a Guinness World Record - including 30 years in solitary confinement waiting to die
He was sentenced to death in 1968, but was not executed because of a lengthy appeals process
A Japanese court has now ordered for his release and retrial, although the prosecution has four days to decide whether it will appeal the decision
By William Turvill (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=William+Turvill)
PUBLISHED: 06:35 GMT, 27 March 2014 | UPDATED: 14:11 GMT, 27 March 2014
A Japanese court has ordered the release of the world’s longest serving death row inmate because the evidence used against him was likely made up.
Iwao Hakamada, 78, a former professional boxer convicted of the 1966 murder of a family, has spent the last 45 years behind bars on death row, a Guinness World Record – including 30 years in solitary confinement waiting to die.
The court ordered a retrial for Mr Hakamada - who was sentenced to death in 1968 but not executed because of a lengthy appeals process - although the prosecution has four days to decide whether it will appeal the decision.
According to local media, Mr Hakamada was released from Tokyo Detention House for the first time in decades at around 5pm today, Japanese time. Accompanied by his sister, Mr Hakamada, in a yellow shirt, made his way slowly out of the court to a car before being driven away.
Scroll down for video
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/27/article-2590445-1C9BE95700000578-840_306x423.jpg+9
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/27/article-2590445-1C9A821800000578-714_306x423.jpg+9
A Japanese court has ordered the release of Iwao Hakamada, the world's longest serving death row inmate who has spent nearly 50 years behind bars, because evidence against him was likely to have been made up
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/01/16/article-2540413-1AB34C2E00000578-132_634x578.jpg+9
The court ordered a retrial for Mr Hakamada, a former professional boxer, who was sentenced to death in 1968
Presiding judge Hiroaki Murayama said he was concerned that investigators could have planted evidence to win a conviction as they sought to bring closure to a crime that had shocked the country.
‘There is possibility that (key pieces of) evidence have been fabricated by investigative bodies,’ Mr Murayama said in his ruling, according to Jiji Press.
The court said today that DNA analysis obtained by Mr Hakamada's lawyers suggested that investigators had fabricated evidence.
There has long been speculation he was innocent, and in 2007 one of the three judges who originally convicted him publicly declared he had thought Mr Hakamada was innocent.
Mr Hakamada initially denied accusations that he robbed and killed his boss, the man's wife and their two children before setting their house ablaze.
But the former boxer, who worked for a bean-paste maker, later confessed following what he subsequently claimed was a brutal police interrogation that included beatings.
He retracted his confession, but to no avail, and the supreme court confirmed his death sentence in 1980.
Prosecutors and courts had used blood-stained clothes, which emerged a year after the crime and his arrest, as key evidence to convict Mr Hakamada.
The clothes did not fit him, his supporters said. The blood stains appeared too vivid for evidence that was discovered a year after the crime. Later DNA tests found no link between Mr Hakamada, the clothes and the blood stains, his supporters said.
But the now-frail Mr Hakamada has remained in solitary confinement on death row, regardless.
His supporters and some lawyers, including the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, have loudly voiced their doubts about the evidence, the police investigations and the judicial logic that led to the conviction.
Even one of the judges who originally sentenced Mr Hakamada to death in 1968 has said he was never convinced of the man's guilt but could not sway his judicial colleagues who out-voted him.
Japan has a conviction rate of around 99 per cent and claims of heavy-handed police interrogations persist under a long-held belief that a confession is the gold standard of guilt.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2590445/Japan-orders-longest-held-death-row-inmate-freed.html#ixzz2xCKls8KG
GIVEN JUST HOURS OF NOTICE BEFORE THEIR EXECUTION
Apart from the United States, Japan is the only major industrialised democracy to carry out capital punishment, a practice that has led to repeated protests from European governments and human rights groups.
Japan carries out a handful of executions every year.
The country has around 130 death-row inmates, who are usually confined to their cell with little or no contact with other inmates.
Prisoners are typically notified about their impending deaths just hours before they are hanged, and their families are told only after the execution.
The only crimes that can lead to a death sentence in Japan are murder and treason.
Between 1946 and 2003, 766 people were sentenced to death in Japan, according to Hoover (http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/6522). Of these, 608 were executed.
According to Amnesty International, a number of prisoners on death row in Japan have, like Mr Hakamada, been driven to mental illness.
The charity revealed in 2009 that prisoners are kept in isolation cells and are forced to sit at all time.
Prisoners are generally kept in solitary confinement, televisions are banned and visits are limited and often denied.
Iwao Hakamada, 78, was convicted of the murder of a family in 1966
He has spent the last 45 years behind bars on death row, a Guinness World Record - including 30 years in solitary confinement waiting to die
He was sentenced to death in 1968, but was not executed because of a lengthy appeals process
A Japanese court has now ordered for his release and retrial, although the prosecution has four days to decide whether it will appeal the decision
By William Turvill (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=William+Turvill)
PUBLISHED: 06:35 GMT, 27 March 2014 | UPDATED: 14:11 GMT, 27 March 2014
A Japanese court has ordered the release of the world’s longest serving death row inmate because the evidence used against him was likely made up.
Iwao Hakamada, 78, a former professional boxer convicted of the 1966 murder of a family, has spent the last 45 years behind bars on death row, a Guinness World Record – including 30 years in solitary confinement waiting to die.
The court ordered a retrial for Mr Hakamada - who was sentenced to death in 1968 but not executed because of a lengthy appeals process - although the prosecution has four days to decide whether it will appeal the decision.
According to local media, Mr Hakamada was released from Tokyo Detention House for the first time in decades at around 5pm today, Japanese time. Accompanied by his sister, Mr Hakamada, in a yellow shirt, made his way slowly out of the court to a car before being driven away.
Scroll down for video
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/27/article-2590445-1C9BE95700000578-840_306x423.jpg+9
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/27/article-2590445-1C9A821800000578-714_306x423.jpg+9
A Japanese court has ordered the release of Iwao Hakamada, the world's longest serving death row inmate who has spent nearly 50 years behind bars, because evidence against him was likely to have been made up
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/01/16/article-2540413-1AB34C2E00000578-132_634x578.jpg+9
The court ordered a retrial for Mr Hakamada, a former professional boxer, who was sentenced to death in 1968
Presiding judge Hiroaki Murayama said he was concerned that investigators could have planted evidence to win a conviction as they sought to bring closure to a crime that had shocked the country.
‘There is possibility that (key pieces of) evidence have been fabricated by investigative bodies,’ Mr Murayama said in his ruling, according to Jiji Press.
The court said today that DNA analysis obtained by Mr Hakamada's lawyers suggested that investigators had fabricated evidence.
There has long been speculation he was innocent, and in 2007 one of the three judges who originally convicted him publicly declared he had thought Mr Hakamada was innocent.
Mr Hakamada initially denied accusations that he robbed and killed his boss, the man's wife and their two children before setting their house ablaze.
But the former boxer, who worked for a bean-paste maker, later confessed following what he subsequently claimed was a brutal police interrogation that included beatings.
He retracted his confession, but to no avail, and the supreme court confirmed his death sentence in 1980.
Prosecutors and courts had used blood-stained clothes, which emerged a year after the crime and his arrest, as key evidence to convict Mr Hakamada.
The clothes did not fit him, his supporters said. The blood stains appeared too vivid for evidence that was discovered a year after the crime. Later DNA tests found no link between Mr Hakamada, the clothes and the blood stains, his supporters said.
But the now-frail Mr Hakamada has remained in solitary confinement on death row, regardless.
His supporters and some lawyers, including the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, have loudly voiced their doubts about the evidence, the police investigations and the judicial logic that led to the conviction.
Even one of the judges who originally sentenced Mr Hakamada to death in 1968 has said he was never convinced of the man's guilt but could not sway his judicial colleagues who out-voted him.
Japan has a conviction rate of around 99 per cent and claims of heavy-handed police interrogations persist under a long-held belief that a confession is the gold standard of guilt.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2590445/Japan-orders-longest-held-death-row-inmate-freed.html#ixzz2xCKls8KG
GIVEN JUST HOURS OF NOTICE BEFORE THEIR EXECUTION
Apart from the United States, Japan is the only major industrialised democracy to carry out capital punishment, a practice that has led to repeated protests from European governments and human rights groups.
Japan carries out a handful of executions every year.
The country has around 130 death-row inmates, who are usually confined to their cell with little or no contact with other inmates.
Prisoners are typically notified about their impending deaths just hours before they are hanged, and their families are told only after the execution.
The only crimes that can lead to a death sentence in Japan are murder and treason.
Between 1946 and 2003, 766 people were sentenced to death in Japan, according to Hoover (http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/6522). Of these, 608 were executed.
According to Amnesty International, a number of prisoners on death row in Japan have, like Mr Hakamada, been driven to mental illness.
The charity revealed in 2009 that prisoners are kept in isolation cells and are forced to sit at all time.
Prisoners are generally kept in solitary confinement, televisions are banned and visits are limited and often denied.