Photo/Illutration Hideko Hakamada, left, and the defense team for her brother, Iwao, head toward the Shizuoka District Court on May 22. (Yuichi Koyama)

SHIZUOKA--Prosecutors again sought the death sentence in the retrial of Iwao Hakamada, an 88-year-old former boxer who spent decades on death row in what his legal team described as a travesty of justice.

The Shizuoka District Court on May 22 heard closing statements from prosecutors who continue to argue that Hakamada is guilty of murder and should be hanged for the crime committed 58 years ago.

Hakamada was arrested on suspicion of murdering four members of a family in 1966 in Shizuoka Prefecture and setting their house on fire.

Although he consistently said he was innocent, the Shizuoka District Court in 1968 found him guilty and gave him the death sentence, which was finalized in 1980.

At his retrial, prosecutors said, “We can demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime.”

However, the prosecutors’ key evidence used to convict Hakamada did not stand up to scrutiny.

During Hakamada’s lengthy imprisonment, his defense lawyers on two occasions filed requests for a retrial.

The Shizuoka District Court in 2014 approved a retrial, and prosecutors appealed the decision. The case reached the Supreme Court, which ordered the Tokyo High Court to redo the proceedings.

In 2023, the high court backed the decision to hold a retrial at the Shizuoka District Court.

After the retrial began in October 2023, prosecutors again argued that Hakamada was guilty and said various evidence presented in his original trial showed that he committed the crime.

Five pieces of bloodstained clothing that Iwao was supposedly wearing at the time of the killings were presented as key evidence.

Prosecutors claimed Hakamada hid the clothing in a miso tank after he committed the crime, and that they remained immersed in the tank for more than a year.

In seeking the retrial, the defense team presented the results of scientific experiments showing that bloodstains would turn blackish after such a long time in a miso tank.

The bloodstains in the clothing evidence were reddish in color.

In accepting the retrial, the high court said there was a high possibility that the evidence was not only fabricated but also planted.

The defense team argued that high court ruling meant the evidence presented by prosecutors was worthless and should be excluded from the retrial.

The defense also argued that prosecutors should abandon any plans to seek a guilty verdict because there were many questions concerning their case.

Hakamada was excused from attending the retrial because his mental health deteriorated so much during his time in prison.

In other retrials, prosecutors sought the same death sentence in four cases from the 1980s, but the defendants were all found not guilty.

In another retrial in which prosecutors sought the same life sentence given in the original trial, the court found the defendant not guilty.

There have also been some cases in which prosecutors did not seek a guilty verdict in the retrial.

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For details of Hakamada’s trial and letters that he sent to his family while on death row for decades, check out https://www.asahi.com/special/hakamadaletters/en/.

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