Death Penalty News

TOKYO – Japan’s criminal justice system is under intense scrutiny after the courts, within months, twice accused law enforcement officials of fabricating evidence in their zealous pursuit of convictions. The damning indictments in two cases – one involving murder, the other economic security – expose flaws in a system that prides itself on a 99.8 per cent conviction rate. On Oct 8, 2024, the nearly six-decade ordeal of former boxer Iwao Hakamada finally concluded when prosecutors decided not to appeal a retrial verdict that had exonerated him of four murders in 1966.

A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world's longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded more than 217 million yen in compensation, an official said Tuesday. The payout represents 12,500 yen for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others.

An 88-year-old Japanese man who at one point was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been presented with a rosary blessed by Pope Francis. Archbishop Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo recently visited Iwao Hakamada, a former boxer and convert to Catholicism, to make the presentation of the papal gift to the now officially innocent octogenarian. Following his release from prison in 2014 because of new DNA evidence – after 48 years on death row – Hakamada still wasn’t officially proclaimed innocent until his definitive acquittal a decade later.

Hideko Hakamada’s brother Iwao was sentenced to death for murder in Japan in 1968. She campaigned tirelessly for his release as he spent nearly five decades on death row, being described as the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner.   In September 2024, Hakamada was acquitted after a retrial – a court ruling that the evidence that incriminated him was fabricated. Here, 92-year-old Hideko celebrates her brother’s long-awaited freedom. 

A Japanese man acquitted of a 1966 quadruple murder in a retrial is set to file a lawsuit against the state for defamation after the prosecutor general called the ruling that found him not guilty "unacceptable," his lawyers said Thursday.  Iwao Hakamada, 88, was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court last September after spending nearly half a century on death row before new evidence led to his release in 2014. He was recognized that year as the world's longest-serving death row prisoner. 

Iwao Hakamada's Trial by Ordeal Iwao Hakamada, a former Japanese professional boxer, became one of the most prominent symbols of judicial miscarriage after spending more than four decades on death row for a crime he always maintained he did not commit. His case, marked by allegations of forced confessions, fabricated evidence by the police, and prosecutorial misconduct, has drawn international attention to Japan's legal system.

Hideko Hakamada, 91, fought half her life to free her brother - the world's longest serving death row inmate When a court declared Iwao Hakamada innocent in September , the world's longest-serving death row inmate seemed unable to comprehend, much less savour the moment. "I told him he was acquitted, and he was silent," Hideko Hakamada, his 91-year-old sister, tells the BBC at her home in Hamamatsu, Japan. "I couldn't tell whether he understood or not."

The chief of the Shizuoka Prefectural Police on Monday offered an apology in person to Iwao Hakamada at his home in Shizuoka Prefecture following his acquittal in a retrial over a 1966 murder case last month. Takayoshi Tsuda visited the home of Hakamada, 88, in the city of Hamamatsu, bowing deeply for about two minutes. “I am sorry for the pain and burden I have caused you over the last 58 years, which cannot be expressed in words,” Tsuda said to Hakamada and his older sister Hideko, 91, who fought a decades-long legal battle on behalf of her brother.

HAMAMATSU, Japan (AP) — Hideko Hakamada, 91, spent much of her life working to free her brother from nearly a half-century on death row. Now that he has been acquitted she feels that the siblings are beginning a new chapter of their lives. She backed her brother, Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, through decades of frustrating, at times apparently hopeless, legal wrangling as his mental condition worsened.

Japan should be ensuring the safety of its citizens, but instead it is taking people's lives. Is it acceptable to maintain the ultimate penalty under such circumstances? This is a serious question for society. The acquittal of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been handed the death penalty, has been finalized after prosecutors decided not to appeal the verdict issued by the Shizuoka District Court during his retrial.

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.

Decision closes book on a case that resulted in man spending half a century on death row Japanese prosecutors do not plan to appeal the recent acquittal in the retrial of a former professional boxer who was sentenced to death for a 1966 quadruple murder, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, paving the way for the ruling to be finalised. Iwao Hakamada, 88, spent nearly half a century on death row before new evidence led to his release from incarceration in 2014.

World's longest-serving death row inmate mulls suing govt after acquittal A lawyer for the world’s longest-serving death row inmate — who was acquitted in a Japanese retrial last week of a 1966 quadruple murder — said that the defence team is considering filing a damage suit against the government over the fabrication of evidence that ruined the man’s life and his mental health by keeping him in prison for 48 years. Iwao Hakamada, an 88-year-old former boxer, was found not guilty last week by the Shizuoka District Court which concluded that police and prosecutors collaborated in fabricating and planting evidence against him. The court said he was forced into confession by violent, hours-long closed interrogations.

The world's longest-serving death row inmate hailed his historic acquittal as a "complete victory" on Sunday, just days after a Japanese court declared Iwao Hakamada innocent of a 1966 quadruple murder. The 88-year-old former boxer spent 46 years on death row, mostly in solitary confinement.  The world's longest-serving death row prisoner thanked his supporters for helping him achieve "complete victory" after a Japanese court last week overturned his decades-old murder conviction.

TOKYO — A Japanese court ruled Thursday that an 88-year-old former boxer was not guilty in a retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder, reversing an earlier wrongful conviction after decades on death row. Iwao Hakamada's acquittal by the Shizuoka District Court makes him the fifth death-row convict to be found not guilty in a retrial in postwar Japanese criminal justice. The case could rekindle a debate around abolishing the death penalty in Japan. The court's presiding judge, Koshi Kunii, said the court acknowledged multiple fabrications of evidence and that Hakamada was not the culprit, NHK said.

Tokyo (AFP) – The world's longest-serving death row prisoner hears from a Japanese court on Thursday if he will again face execution or finally be acquitted, a decade after obtaining a retrial of his murder conviction. Iwao Hakamada, 88, was jailed under the death penalty for 46 years until he was freed in 2014 pending a retrial. The former boxer was first convicted in 1968 of killing his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children.

Japan needs to revise its retrial system, which leads to prolonged proceedings that could last for decades, a sister of Iwao Hakamada, an aging former inmate on retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder in central Japan, said Wednesday. "We have been fighting for 58 years, and finally we are in a retrial. This is ridiculously long," Hideko Hakamada, 91, told a press conference in Tokyo, ahead of a ruling slated for Sept. 26 for her 88-year-old brother, who is still facing a death sentence.

Iwao Hakamada, who in a rare example is being retried over a 1966 murder case, will be given a verdict on Sept. 26, the Shizuoka District Court said Wednesday, which could see him finally acquitted more than five decades after he was sentenced to death by the same court. In the last trial session, prosecutors again sought the death penalty for the 88-year-old, saying there is enough evidence to show that Hakamata is the perpetrator, while defense lawyers argued that he is not guilty.

TOKYO: Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday (May 22) sought the death penalty in the retrial of a man reputed to have been the world's longest-serving death row prisoner until his release in 2014, local media reported. Former boxer Iwao Hakamada, now 88, spent nearly five decades on death row after being convicted in 1968 of robbing and murdering his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children.

Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)