Japan | Iwao Hakamada death row acquittal finalized; Prosecutors won't appeal court's ruling

TOKYO — Japanese prosecutors said on Tuesday they will not appeal against last month's acquittal of the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada.

After a long fight for justice led by his sister, a court declared last month that Hakamada, 88, was innocent of the quadruple murder for which he spent 46 years waiting to be executed, mostly in solitary confinement.

The court in Shizuoka, outside Tokyo, ruled that police tampered with evidence and said the ex-boxer had suffered "inhumane interrogations meant to force a statement" that he later withdrew.

Hakamada was first convicted in 1968 of robbing and killing his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children.

Japan's top prosecutor Naomi Unemoto said in a statement a decision had been made not to appeal against the Shizuoka court's decision because Hakamada had been "put in legal limbo for such a long time".

"We have decided, after thorough consideration, that it is not appropriate to prolong this situation," Unemoto said.

However, she also said prosecutors were "deeply dissatisfied" that the Shizuoka tribunal had found that evidence had been fabricated, calling the conclusion logically flawed.

The court found that police had daubed blood on clothes that were then planted to be found at the crime scene.

"The ruling is absolutely unacceptable and should be considered worthy of an appeal," Unemoto said.

Hakamada's sister Hideko rejoiced at the news, smiling broadly at a news conference in Shizuoka.

"I am so happy that Iwao finally stops being a death-row prisoner," the 91-year-old said. "I want him to attain true freedom going forward."

She added that she hopes her aging brother will "live a bit longer" now that he is exonerated. "We just wish we can live an ordinary, quiet life."

Japan and the United States are the only two major industrialized countries that still use capital punishment. It has strong public support in Japan, where scrapping it is rarely discussed.

Hakamada was granted a retrial in 2014 and was released from prison, although legal wrangling meant the proceedings only began last year.

He is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's postwar history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.

Decades of detention, mostly in solitary confinement with the threat of execution constantly looming over him, took a toll on Hakamada's mental health.

His lawyer and supporters have described him as "living in a world of fantasy".

The way capital punishment is carried out in Japan has also been criticized, with prisoners often informed of their impending death in the early morning just a few hours before they are hanged.

However, Japan's new Justice Minister Hideki Makihara said last week that abolishing the death penalty would be "inappropriate".

Amnesty International called on Japan after last month's ruling to abolish capital punishment, saying that 115 people were on death row there in December 2023.

Source: japantoday.com, AFP, October 9, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Instagram | Telegram | Contact Us

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Biden Commuted Their Death Sentences. Now What?

As three men challenge their commutations, others brace for imminent prison transfers and the finality of a life sentence with no chance of release. In the days after President Joe Biden commuted his death sentence, 40-year-old Rejon Taylor felt like he’d been reborn. After facing execution for virtually his entire adult life for a crime he committed at 18, he was fueled by a new sense of purpose. He was “a man on a mission,” he told me in an email on Christmas Day. “I will not squander this opportunity of mercy, of life.”

Todd Willingham: Ex-wife says convicted killer confessed

The former wife of a man whose 2004 execution in Texas has become a source of controversy has said he admitted setting the fire that killed their three daughters during a final prison meeting just weeks before he was put to death, according to a Texas newspaper. Stacy Kuykendall, the ex-wife of Cameron Todd Willingham, said in a statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published Sunday that Willingham told her he was upset by threats to divorce him after the new year. The fire that killed the couple's three girls was Dec. 23, 1991. Her last threat to divorce him, she said in a statement, occurred the night before the fire. "He said if I didn't have my girls I couldn't leave him and that I could never have Amber or the twins with anyone else but him," according to the statement from Kuykendall to the newspaper. Willingham went to his death proclaiming his innocence. And over the years, she has offered differing accounts. A Tribune investigation in 2004 showed the...

Saudi Arabia executes Somali national, Saudi citizen

Mogadishu (HOL) — Saudi authorities executed a Somali national convicted of drug smuggling and a Saudi citizen found guilty of murder, the Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday. The Somali national, identified as Mohamed Nur Hussein Ja'al, was arrested for attempting to smuggle hashish into Saudi Arabia. A specialized court found him guilty and sentenced him to death under tazir punishment, a discretionary ruling in Islamic law for severe crimes. After an appeal, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence, and a royal decree authorized the execution, which was carried out on Sunday in Najran, southern Saudi Arabia.

Alabama executes Demetrius Frazier

Alabama puts man to death in the nation's fourth execution using nitrogen gas ATMORE, Ala. — A man convicted of murdering a woman after breaking into her apartment as she slept was put to death Thursday evening in Alabama in the nation's fourth execution using nitrogen gas. Demetrius Frazier, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. at a south Alabama prison for his murder conviction in the 1991 rape and killing of Pauline Brown, 41. It was the first execution in Alabama this year and the third in the U.S. in 2025, following a lethal injection Wednesday in Texas and another last Friday in South Carolina.

Louisiana man with execution date next month dies at Angola

Christopher Sepulvado, the 81-year-old man who was facing execution next month for the 1992 murder of his stepson, died overnight at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, according to his attorney. Shawn Nolan, who had represented Sepulvado, said his client had had a gangrenous leg amputated last week at a New Orleans hospital. Doctors had determined Sepulvado, who had multiple serious ailments, was terminally ill and recommended hospice care at the time a judge set his execution date for March 17, according to his attorney.

U.S. | AG Bondi orders federal inmate transferred for execution

President Donald Trump's newly installed attorney general, Pam Bondi, has ordered the transfer of a federal inmate to Oklahoma so he can be executed, following through on Trump's sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty. Bondi this week directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer inmate George John Hanson, 60, so that he can be executed for his role in the kidnapping and killing of a 77-year-old woman in Tulsa in 1999.

Texas executes Steven Nelson

A man has been executed by lethal injection in the US state of Texas for the 2011 murder of a pastor that he insisted he did not commit. Steven Nelson, 37, spent more than a dozen years on death row for the murder of Clint Dobson, 28, during a robbery of the NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, near Dallas. Judy Elliott, the church secretary, was also badly beaten during the robbery but survived.

Singapore Court Of Appeal Grants Stay Of Execution To Pannir Selvam

SINGAPORE, Feb 19 (Bernama) -- Singapore Court of Appeal on Wednesday has granted Malaysian death row inmate Pannir Selvam Pranthaman a stay of execution just hours before he was scheduled to be executed on Thursday (Feb 20). Judge of the Appellate Division Woo Bih Li, in his judgment, said the stay was granted pending the determination of Pannir Selvam’s Post-Appeal Applications in Capital Cases (PACC) application.

‘Here we are again’: Death row Canadian waits as Montana looks at resuming executions

The fate of a Canadian who has been on death row in Montana for the past 42 years has been thrown into more uncertainty as state legislators try again to remove obstacles to resuming executions. Ronald Smith, 67, is originally from Red Deer, Alta., and has been on death row since 1983, a year after he and another man, high on LSD and alcohol, shot and killed two young Indigenous cousins near East Glacier, Mont. Time moves slowly at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, Mont. where Smith has been described as a model prisoner for four decades. But almost like clockwork every two years, another attempt to allow the state to resume executions begins in the Montana legislature.

Singapore | Pannir set to be executed on Feb 20

His former lawyer, M Ravi, says the only recourse now is for the Malaysian government to file an urgent application to the International Court of Justice challenging the execution. PETALING JAYA: Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, the 38-year-old Malaysian convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore, will be executed on Thursday (Feb 20), according to his former lawyer, M Ravi. In a Facebook post today, Ravi said Pannir’s sister told him that she had received a letter from the prison today confirming his execution in four days. Ravi claimed that during his time representing Pannir in 2020, Singapore’s prison authorities improperly forwarded confidential information on 13 inmates to the Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog