A Japanese court has acquitted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamata, who had been sentenced to death for the murder of four people. His defense team had filed appeals for decades, reports the national portal “Adyrna,” citing Kazinform.
Hakamata remained on death row until 2014, after which he was released and a retrial began. The court found that the evidence proving his guilt had been falsified.
Iwao Hakamata, a former professional boxer, took up a job at a miso (traditional Japanese seasoning) factory after ending his sports career. On June 30, 1966, a fire broke out at his boss’s house, which Hakamata helped extinguish.
According to Hakamata, he discovered the stabbed bodies of his boss, his wife, and their two children. Additionally, about 200,000 yen had been stolen from the house.
He was arrested and charged with the murders. During a 20-day interrogation, he confessed to the crime, but the court later stated that the confession was extracted through torture. A year after the arrest, bloodstained clothes were found in one of the factory’s copper containers. The blood matched the victims’ blood types.
The court sentenced him to death, and Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the sentence in 1980. Hakamata’s defense team continued filing appeals until 2014. In 2011, he was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the person who had waited the longest on death row.
In March 2014, after the case was reopened, Hakamata was released. Later analysis revealed that the bloodstained clothes did not contain Hakamata’s DNA.
At the final court hearing in May 2024, prosecutors continued to seek the death penalty. However, the court found that the evidence, including Hakamata’s confession, had been falsified.
