- Iwao Hakamada — who is believed to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate — has been acquitted 58 years after his arrest
- Per local reports, Hakamada’s death sentence was finalized in 1980 after he was found guilty of murdering a family of four in 1968
- Hakamada was granted a retrial in 2014 and after years of prolonged legal proceedings, it finally opened in October 2023
A man believed to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been acquitted by a Japanese court at age 88.
On Thursday, Sept. 26, the Shizuoka District Court announced the verdict of Iwao Hakamada. It arrived 56 years after he was found guilty in 1968 of killing a family of four two years prior, per the BBC.
According to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, the court claimed that “key evidence” had been “fabricated by investigators” at his original trial. Hakamada had “continued to maintain his innocence after his death sentence was finalized in 1980,” the outlet stated.
Hakamada’s retrial began in October 2023 before a total of 15 hearings took place, per NHK.
Iwao Hakamada and his sister Hideko Hakamada pictured in 2015.
Aflo/Shutterstock
He was accused of killing a senior manager at the miso factory where he worked in 1966, as well as the man’s wife and his two children. The family was found dead after being stabbed at their home before the property was set on fire, the publicationadded.
The BBC reported that Hakamada had also been accused of stealing 200,000 Japanese Yen (now nearly $1,400 USD) in cash.
Per Japanese outlet The Asahi Shimbum, Judge Koshi Kunii claimed investigative authorities had “tampered with evidence by smearing blood” on Hakamada’s clothing supposedly worn during the alleged crimes.
NHK added that Judge Kunii Koshi also questioned whether red stains on clothing found in a miso tank were blood, as the items “would not retain a red hue after being buried under miso paste for more than one year.”
The outlet suggested the clothes had been placed in the tank “after a considerable period of time had passed since the killings.”
The BBC also stated that Hakamada’s lawyers had long insisted that DNA found on some clothes in the miso tank a year after his arrest did not match his.
Hakamada was granted a retrial in 2014 after Judge Hiroaki Murayama admitted that “the clothes were not those of the defendant,” per the BBC. However, it’s taken up until now for the retrial to happen due to prolonged legal proceedings, the outlet stated.
The Asahi Shimbum reported that Hakamada’s 91-year-old sister, Hideko, had been among those fighting for her brother’s freedom through the years.
“On behalf of my brother, I plead not guilty,” she said when the retrial started in October, per the outlet. Hakamada had been living with his sister in Shizuoka Prefecture since 2014 when he was released pending the eventual retrial, the paper added.
Iwao Hakamada.
AP Photo/Kyodo
The outlet added that Hakamada, who was a former professional boxer, was not present during the hearings due to mental illness which he had “developed behind bars.”
Despite maintaining his innocence through the years, he “confessed” to the crimes “after nearly three weeks of brutal police interrogations” following his initial arrest in 1966, the Asahi Shimbum reported, citing his defense team. However, he retracted that confession once the trial opened.
Amnesty International’s East Asia Researcher Boram Jang was among those celebrating Hakamada’s acquittal.
“We are overjoyed by the court’s decision to exonerate Iwao Hakamada. After enduring almost half a century of wrongful imprisonment and a further 10 years waiting for his retrial, this verdict is an important recognition of the profound injustice he endured for most of his life,” Jang said, per the human rights organization’s website.
Hakamada’s acquittal marks the fifth time in postwar Japan — and the first in 35 years — that a defendant on death row has been exonerated in the country, per NHK.
