Photo/Illutration Hideko Hakamada, center, and supporters head to the Shizuoka District Court on Oct. 27 for the retrial of her younger brother, Iwao. (Jin Nishioka)

SHIZUOKA—A 90-year-old woman made an impassioned plea on Oct. 27 for the swift acquittal of her brother who spent decades on death row after being convicted of murder on dodgy evidence.

But Hideko Hakamada and her brother, Iwao, 87, will likely have to wait until next year for his name to be cleared.

That is because prosecutors, despite being rebuked by a high court, still plan to convict him again at his retrial, which started on Oct. 27 at the Shizuoka District Court.

Their arguments will prolong the retrial, and the verdict—most likely not guilty—may be handed down next spring.

Iwao, a former professional boxer, was convicted in 1968 of murdering four members of a family.

He claimed his innocence, and Hideko had long fought to gain a retrial to overturn the conviction against her brother.

She has also witnessed the deterioration of Iwao’s health.

He suffered both physical and psychological problems during his decades on death row not knowing if he would be hanged that day.

Although Iwao has been released from prison, he has difficulties communicating with others.

The Shizuoka District Court decided that he did not have to appear in court during the retrial because of his condition.

“In place of my younger brother, Iwao, I stand here to argue his innocence,” Hideko said in the courtroom. “I ask that you give Iwao his true freedom.”

The Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that “clear evidence that would lead to an acquittal” is necessary for a retrial.

After the Tokyo High Court in March ordered the retrial, Iwao’s lawyers felt that the proceedings would end swiftly with their client cleared of all charges.

But prosecutors said in July they would again seek to convict him for the four murders in 1966.

The high court called for the retrial after a re-examination of five pieces of bloodstained clothing that Iwao was supposedly wearing at the time of the crime.

The clothes, which were said to have been immersed in a miso tank for more than a year, comprised the main evidence that led to the guilty verdict in 1968.

The bloodstains in the clothes were reddish in color.

But at the Tokyo High Court, the defense team submitted scientific test results showing that bloodstains would turn blackish after such a long time in a miso tank.

The high court ruled there was a possibility that the evidence was not only fabricated but also planted.

Prosecutors apparently did not like that suggestion, and they plan to validate the evidence in the retrial.

The defense lawyers plan to say the prosecutors are simply rehashing arguments they made in the past rather than presenting any new evidence.

They also will argue that other evidence prosecutors plan to present at the retrial have not even been recognized in past trials as circumstantial evidence that might help gain a conviction.

Related News