The court ruled that 87-year-old Iwao Hakamada should not be re-imprisoned, as the man is unlikely to be found guilty again.
of Tokyo the Supreme Court has granted permission for a retrial of the case of a Japanese man sentenced to death for four murders.
The Japanese, for example, talk about it Kyodo NewsJapan Broadcasting Corporation NHK and a British magazine The Guardian.
87-year-old former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada sentenced to death for four murders committed in 1966 in Shizuoka Prefecture.
In 1968, Hakamada was sentenced to death by hanging. He spent 45 years behind bars until new evidence led to his release in 2014.
According to The Guardian, at the time of his release, Hakamadan was known to be the longest serving prisoner on death row.
Hakamada worked in a factory where soybeans are made into miso paste. He was arrested in 1966 on suspicion of killing a factory manager and his family. The manager and his family were found stabbed to death in their burned home in Shizuoka.
Hakamada was accused of murder, robbery and arson. His death sentence was handed down on the basis of bloody clothes found in a miso tank a year after the incident, which were assumed to belong to him.
Later, however, doubts arose as to whether the blood stains were genuine. Even though the clothes had been in the container for over a year, the blood stains remained red.
Hakamadana according to the defense, the evidence is falsified. According to them, the blood stains would have turned black in the tank, and no reddish tint could have been seen more than a year later.
According to the prosecutors, the blood stains could partially have retained their color.
“One can reasonably assume that the reddish tone of the blood stains would have disappeared from the clothes after they had been in the container for more than a year,” the court ruled on Monday.
The court found the evidence unreliable and speculated that the crime investigators hid Hakamada’s clothes in the container.
The court ruled that Hakamada would not be re-imprisoned, as it is unlikely that the man will be found guilty again.
“I have been waiting for this day. It has finally arrived,” Hakamada’s 90-year-old Hidekosister told the media at the courthouse.
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