Latest news with #ShizuokaDistrictCourt
21-04-2025
- Politics
Japan Panel Agrees on Need to Revise Retrial System
Tokyo, April 21 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese government advisory panel held its first meeting Monday to review the country's retrial system, following the acquittal of Iwao Hakamata after decades on death row. Members of a subcommittee under the Legislative Council agreed on the need for law revisions and decided to hear opinions from former prosecutors and judges, as well as lawyers who have handled past cases of convicts acquitted in retrials. The subcommittee has 14 members, including lawyer Hiroaki Murayama, who, as presiding judge in 2014, led Shizuoka District Court's decision to hold a retrial of Hakamata, 89, over the 1966 murder of a family in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan. Public calls for a review of the retrial system, which has not been revised since the country's criminal procedure law was established in 1948, have been growing since Hakamata's acquittal last year. Under the current law, the retrial process and the criteria and procedures for disclosing evidence held by investigative agencies are not clarified, leading to criticism of the retrial system as "the door that never opens." [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Japan Times
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Japan to start discussions on reviewing retrial system Monday
A government advisory panel will start discussions Monday to review the country's retrial system for criminal cases in which guilty verdicts have become final, Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Friday. The Legislative Council, which advises the justice minister, will hold the first subcommittee meeting on the matter Monday. The minister also announced the 14 members of the subcommittee, including former judge Hiroaki Murayama, who decided to start the retrial of Iwao Hakamata that led to his acquittal for the 1966 murder of a family in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan. Murayama is currently a lawyer. In 2014, as presiding judge at the Shizuoka District Court, he gave the go-ahead to the retrial of Hakamata, whose death sentence had been finalized in 1980, and decided to suspend his sentence and detention. Lawyer Yumi Kamoshida, who has been advocating for a revision to retrial-related legislation, was also appointed. Toshihiro Kawaide, professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate Schools for Law and Politics who specializes in criminal law, and Hiroshi Morimoto, director-general of the Justice Ministry's Criminal Affairs Bureau, will join the subcommittee as well. "They are suitable for considering the retrial system from a broad perspective," the justice minister said of the subcommittee members. A suprapartisan group of lawmakers that seeks a review of the retrial system had asked the justice minister to include as subcommittee members victims of false charges and former judges who were involved in retrial cases, saying the composition of the panel would have a major impact on the content of its discussions. This time, victims of false accusations and their families were not included. Japan's Code of Criminal Procedure does not clearly define how retrials should be handled or set guidelines for evidence disclosure by investigative authorities. This has led to drawn-out proceedings and inconsistent decisions on whether to grant retrials, depending heavily on individual judges' discretion. Against this backdrop, the subcommittee is expected to focus on how evidence should be disclosed during the process of seeking a retrial and limitations on prosecutors' ability to appeal decisions to grant one. The retrial-related legislation has never been revised since 1948, when the current Code of Criminal Procedure was enacted. If the review is realized, it will be a major turning point in the country's criminal justice history.
CNN
25-03-2025
- CNN
World's longest-serving death row prisoner awarded $1.4 million after acquittal – that's $85 for each day
A Japanese man who spent more than 40 years on death row until he was acquitted last year has been awarded $1.4 million in compensation, a court said on Tuesday – roughly $85 for each day he was wrongfully convicted. Former professional boxer Iwao Hakamata, 89, was sentenced to death in 1968 for a quadruple murder despite repeatedly alleging that the police had fabricated evidence against him. Once the world's longest-serving death row inmate, he was acquitted after a DNA test showed that the bloodstained clothing which was used to convict him was planted long after the murders, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The Shizuoka District Court confirmed to CNN that Hakamata had been awarded more than 217 million yen – a payout that represents about US$85 per day since he was found guilty. His legal representative Hideyo Ogawa described the compensation as the 'highest amount' ever handed out for a wrongful conviction in Japan, but said it could never make up for what Hakamata had suffered. 'I think the state (government) has made a mistake that cannot be atoned for with 200 million yen,' the lawyer said, according to NHK. Hakamata retired as a professional boxer in 1961 and got a job at a soybean processing plant in Shizuoka, central Japan. Five years later he was arrested by police after his boss, his boss' wife and their two children were found stabbed to death in their home. Hakamata initially admitted to the charges against him, but later changed his plea, accusing police of forcing him to confess by beating and threatening him. He was sentenced to death in a 2-1 decision by judges in 1968. The one dissenting judge stepped down from the bar six months later, demoralized by his inability to stop the sentencing. Hakamata, who has maintained his innocence ever since, would go on to spend more than half his life waiting to be hanged. New evidence led to his release in 2014 pending a retrial, which acquitted him last year. His case brought global scrutiny to Japan's criminal justice system, where conviction rates stand at 99%, according to the Ministry of Justice website, and fueled calls to abolish the death penalty in the country. Hakamata's sister Hideko, who had long campaigned for his release, told CNN last year that decades of imprisonment had wrought irreversible damage on her brother's mental health. Hakamata was 'living in his own world,' she said. 'Sometimes he smiles happily, but that's when he's in his delusion… We have not even discussed the trial with Iwao because of his inability to recognize reality.'
CNN
25-03-2025
- CNN
World's longest-serving death row prisoner awarded $1.4 million after acquittal – that's $85 for each day
A Japanese man who spent more than 40 years on death row until he was acquitted last year has been awarded $1.4 million in compensation, a court said on Tuesday – roughly $85 for each day he was wrongfully convicted. Former professional boxer Iwao Hakamata, 89, was sentenced to death in 1968 for a quadruple murder despite repeatedly alleging that the police had fabricated evidence against him. Once the world's longest-serving death row inmate, he was acquitted after a DNA test showed that the bloodstained clothing which was used to convict him was planted long after the murders, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The Shizuoka District Court confirmed to CNN that Hakamata had been awarded more than 217 million yen – a payout that represents about US$85 per day since he was found guilty. His legal representative Hideyo Ogawa described the compensation as the 'highest amount' ever handed out for a wrongful conviction in Japan, but said it could never make up for what Hakamata had suffered. 'I think the state (government) has made a mistake that cannot be atoned for with 200 million yen,' the lawyer said, according to NHK. Hakamata retired as a professional boxer in 1961 and got a job at a soybean processing plant in Shizuoka, central Japan. Five years later he was arrested by police after his boss, his boss' wife and their two children were found stabbed to death in their home. Hakamata initially admitted to the charges against him, but later changed his plea, accusing police of forcing him to confess by beating and threatening him. He was sentenced to death in a 2-1 decision by judges in 1968. The one dissenting judge stepped down from the bar six months later, demoralized by his inability to stop the sentencing. Hakamata, who has maintained his innocence ever since, would go on to spend more than half his life waiting to be hanged. New evidence led to his release in 2014 pending a retrial, which acquitted him last year. His case brought global scrutiny to Japan's criminal justice system, where conviction rates stand at 99%, according to the Ministry of Justice website, and fueled calls to abolish the death penalty in the country. Hakamata's sister Hideko, who had long campaigned for his release, told CNN last year that decades of imprisonment had wrought irreversible damage on her brother's mental health. Hakamata was 'living in his own world,' she said. 'Sometimes he smiles happily, but that's when he's in his delusion… We have not even discussed the trial with Iwao because of his inability to recognize reality.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
25-03-2025
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Japan Awards Longest-Serving Death Row Inmate $1.4 Million
A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world's longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded $1.4 million in compensation, an official said Tuesday. The payout represents 12,500 yen ($83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The Shizuoka District Court, in a decision dated Monday, said that "the claimant shall be granted 217,362,500 yen," a court spokesman told AFP. The same court ruled in September that Hakamada was not guilty in a retrial and that police had tampered with evidence. Hakamada had suffered "inhumane interrogations meant to force a statement (confession)" that he later withdrew, the court said at the time. The final amount is a record for compensation of this kind, local media said. But Hakamada's legal team has said the money falls short of the pain he suffered. Decades of detention -- with the threat of execution constantly looming -- took a major toll on Hakamada's mental health, his lawyers have said, describing him as "living in a world of fantasy". Hakamada was the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's post-war history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.
