Photo/Illutration Iwao Hakamada purchases a beverage during a recent outing. (Pool)

In granting a retrial, the Tokyo High Court not only blew apart prosecutors’ case but also strongly suggested that planted evidence was used to place a former boxer on death row for nearly 35 years.

In its ruling on March 13, the high court cast doubt on the guilt of Iwao Hakamada, 87, for the murders in 1966 of four individuals in what is now Shizuoka city.

Hakamada was convicted and sentenced to death by the Shizuoka District Court in 1968.

The key point in deciding on a retrial was the discoloration of five articles of clothing found in a miso tank at the company 14 months after the family members were killed.

The district court had accepted prosecutors’ claim at the time that the clothing was Hakamada’s.

But experiments involving the soaking of blood-stained clothing in miso for the same 14 months led to a blackish discoloration, not the reddish color on the clothing that was discovered at the company.

The high court also found that a similar experiment by the prosecution side supported the results of the tests conducted for the defense.

Experts for the prosecutors carried out their discoloration experiment for 14 months. A photo submitted to the court by prosecutors showed traces of reddish color in the outer part of the blood stain.

But the high court concluded that the reddish color was highlighted by an incandescent bulb used by prosecutors in taking photos when the clothing was removed from the miso.

Defense lawyers as well as judges were on hand when the clothing was removed in the prosecutors’ test, and the defense also took photos.

The high court ruling said the photo presented by the defense was closer to the color that the judge saw with the naked eye.

“The experiment by the prosecutors only made clearer that no red color would have remained on the clothing,” the high court concluded.

The five pieces of clothing were “discovered” by investigators about a year after Hakamada was arrested and while his district court trial was under way.

The high court said there was a strong possibility a third party hid the clothing in the miso tank at a later date.

“There is an extremely high possibility the third party was someone with an investigating body,” the court said.

The ruling that finalized the death sentence for Hakamada said the clothing found in the miso tank was worn by Hakamada at the time of the crime.

But the high court said the new evidence about the discoloration raised reasonable doubt that Hakamada was the real culprit.

The high court did not stop at just the discoloration experiments.

It said a confession by Hakamada used by prosecutors no longer had any value as evidence.

In its initial ruling, the Shizuoka District Court threw out 44 of the 45 confessions submitted by prosecutors on grounds Hakamada had not spoken voluntarily during questioning, which continued for 12 hours a day.

The one confession allowed by the district court was compiled by prosecutors before the five pieces of clothing were discovered in the miso tank. In that “confession,” Hakamada said he was wearing pajamas when the crime was committed.

Blood-stained pajamas were not among the five articles of clothing found.

Lawyer Akira Kitani, who once worked as a criminal court judge, said judges in general tend to unconditionally trust the evidence submitted by prosecutors.

“It is difficult for judges to admit that a ruling made earlier was in error,” Kitani said. “But criminal court judges must hold the sense that they are trying to save innocent people.”

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