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The Shizuoka district court acquitted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada on Thursday, clearing him of all charges in a retrial of the 1966 murders of four people. The decision ended his family’s decades-long fight for justice after a wrongful conviction that the court determined to be based on fabricated evidence.
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Fabricated evidence: Hakamada, a former professional boxer, had been accused of stabbing his former boss and his family to death before setting their house on fire in central Japan. He was initially sentenced to death in 1968, a ruling upheld by Japan’s Supreme Court in 1980. Before being granted a retrial in 2014, he spent 45 years on death row, making him the world’s longest-serving death row inmate.
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Celebrated acquittal: Key to Hakamada’s eventual acquittal were DNA tests on bloodstained clothing, which proved the blood did not belong to him. A Tokyo High Court ruling last year determined that the investigators tried to frame him by fabricating and planting evidence. His sister, Hideko Hakamada, who has been a tireless advocate for her brother’s exoneration, expressed her overwhelming relief and joy at the verdict, stating, “When I heard that, I was so moved and happy, I couldn’t stop crying.” Amnesty International also celebrated the acquittal, calling it a “pivotal moment for justice” and urging Japan to reconsider its stance on capital punishment.
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