Japanese court acquits a man in a 1966 murder retrial after decades on death row
NPR Online NewsSEP 14 2024
A Japanese court on Thursday acquitted Iwao Hakamada — an 88-year-old former professional boxer sentenced to death in 1968 for a 1966 quadruple murder and arson — after it acknowledged multiple fabrications of evidence.
Hakamada was convicted of murdering his company manager and three of his family members and setting fire to their home. He was released in 2014 pending retrial and served his sentence at home after a DNA test cast doubt on the reliability of his conviction.
Central to the retrial were five pieces of blood-stained clothes found in a tank in 1967. The prosecutors used the red stains on the clothes as evidence to implicate Hakamada, while the defense accused investigators of a set-up.
A man endured wrongful imprisonment and severe physical and mental trauma for almost half a century for a crime he didn't commit. Though this verdict recognizes Hakamada's innocence and gives him his freedom back, it also reminds us of the irreversible harm caused by the cruelty of capital punishment. Japan must take steps to abolish the death penalty and lower hurdles for retrials to prevent this tragedy from happening again.
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Justice delayed is justice denied. While there may be arguments for and against the death penalty, the fact thatis Hakamada has walked free after fighting a court battle for four decades shows that the real culprit is still at large. The establishment spent considerable time, energy, and money to prove Hakamada guilty. If he is proven innocent and gets to walk free after fighting a court battle for four decades, who killed his boss and his family? This case must be reopened to bring justice to the deceased.