Photo/Illutration Iwao Hakamada, with his sister, Hideko, thanks supporters in Shizuoka on Sept. 29 after his acquittal on retrial. (Hisashi Homma)

After using “fabricated” evidence in a murder trial that put Iwao Hakamada on death row for decades, prosecutors have finally accepted the innocence of the former convict.

The Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office on Oct. 8 said it will not appeal the Sept. 26 ruling of the Shizuoka District Court that acquitted Hakamada, 88, in a long-awaited retrial.

The decision means Hakamada’s innocence is confirmed, ending his 58-year battle to clear his name.

The prosecutors’ office did criticize the district court’s ruling that acknowledged evidence against Hakamada had been fabricated.

“We cannot help but feel strong dissatisfaction with the ruling that investigative authorities fabricated evidence,” the office said in a statement.

But prosecutors noted the protracted time it took for Hakamada to gain a retrial.

“As a result, Hakamada’s legal status has been unstable for a long period of time. We have come to the conclusion that it is not appropriate for the prosecution to appeal and for this situation to continue,” the statement said.

Hakamada, a former professional boxer, was arrested in 1966 over the murder of four family members in Shizuoka Prefecture, including the managing director of a miso manufacturing company that had employed the suspect.

He was found guilty and sentenced to death in 1968.

Although he confessed to the crime during the investigation stage, he later said the admission was coerced. He has since maintained his innocence.

The Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in 1980.

Hakamada developed mental illnesses while being locked up, knowing that his execution orders could arrive on any day.

His defense team’s arduous fight for a retrial was met with staunch resistance by prosecutors, who continually appealed any court decision that favored Hakamada.

Even after the Tokyo High Court in March 2023 granted the retrial and strongly suggested the evidence had been fabricated, prosecutors again tried to find Hakamada guilty of murder.

At the retrial, which began in October 2023, the prosecution sought the death sentence, claiming Hakamada was the murderer.

Of the series of judicial rulings in Hakamada’s prolonged case, the retrial ruling was harshest against investigative authorities.

The Shizuoka District Court found that three pieces of evidence were fabricated, and that prosecutors’ evidence excluding those three pieces could not support a conviction of Hakamada.

Prosecutors had submitted as evidence five articles of bloodstained clothing found in a miso tank about a year after Hakamada’s arrest. They said he wore that clothing when he killed the family members.

However, the district court said investigative authorities fabricated this evidence by applying bloodstains and through other processes. It also said scraps of clothing cut from Hakamada’s pants presented as evidence were fabrications.

In addition, the court said the prosecutors’ statement recording the suspect’s confession was a “substantial fabrication” obtained through an “inhumane interrogation” in collaboration with the police.

According to sources, some within the prosecution were considering appealing the retrial ruling because of court’s judgment concerning the fabricated evidence.

However, prosecutors’ arguments on that issue were rejected not only in the retrial hearing but also at the district court.

In the previous four cases in which death row inmates were acquitted in retrials, the prosecution did not appeal the rulings.

＊＊＊

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/.

Related News