Photo/Illutration Shoji Maekawa after the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court on Oct. 23 granted him a retrial (Tatsuo Kanai)

KANAZAWA—A man who served a seven-year prison sentence over the brutal murder of a schoolgirl was granted a retrial after a court raised doubts about key testimony that the defense says was fabricated.

The Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court on Oct. 23 granted the retrial to Shoji Maekawa, 59, who was convicted of murdering a 15-year-old girl in 1986 in Fukui city.

In its ruling, the branch said questions remain over the veracity of the testimonies given against Maekawa at his murder trial.

The girl had graduated from junior high school on March 19, 1986, the day she was killed. More than 50 stab wounds were found on her body.

Investigators had reached a dead end in the case but then found witnesses who provided statements pointing to Maekawa as the killer.

One witness, an acquaintance of Maekawa, had been arrested and detained on suspicion of violating drug laws before Maekawa’s trial.

This acquaintance had testified that he saw Maekawa with bloodstains on his chest on the day of the girl’s death.

During a closed-door session to determine if a retrial should be granted, the witness corrected himself and said he had actually met Maekawa on a different day.

He also said he made a deal with investigators that he would provide the testimony if they overlooked his own drug-related violations.

Defense lawyers argued that this new testimony would clearly show that Maekawa was not guilty, a condition for a court to grant a retrial.

After Maekawa’s lawyers submitted their second request for a retrial, they received for the first time 287 pieces of evidence from prosecutors.

Included in that package were memos taken by police that said the testimonies of Maekawa’s acquaintances were unreliable.

Maekawa was arrested and indicted in 1987 over the murder. He consistently told investigators that he never met the victim.

Police had no solid evidence, such as fingerprints and footprints, linking Maekawa to the crime.

The focus of the original trial was on the reliability of testimonies provided by six men. Some had said they took in Maekawa or gave him a ride while he was stained in blood.

According to the package of evidence provided by prosecutors, the acquaintances had initially denied being in contact with Maekawa at the time of the girl’s death.

In 1990, the Fukui District Court found Maekawa not guilty on grounds the men’s testimonies had repeatedly changed before the trial.

But the Kanazawa branch overturned the lower court ruling and found Maekawa guilty, saying the main elements of the testimonies were consistent.

The branch only gave Maekawa a seven-year sentence for murder on grounds he was in a weak mental state caused by sniffing paint thinner.

The Supreme Court finalized the sentence in 1997.

After Maekawa served the sentence and was released, he submitted his first request for a retrial in 2004.

In 2011, the Kanazawa branch granted a retrial after siding with the results of an experiment conducted by defense lawyers.

The study showed that only a trace amount of blood was found in the car that Maekawa allegedly used, countering the testimony of one man who said Maekawa was covered in a considerable amount of blood.

But in 2013, the Kanazawa branch rescinded its retrial order after doubts emerged about some of the conditions used in the experiment by the defense.

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