Photo/Illutration Hideko Hakamata speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Nov. 26. (Yuki Nikaido)

Amid debate on reforming the criminal retrial system, the sister of former death row inmate Iwao Hakamata, who was acquitted in a retrial, voiced concerns about a proposal to narrow the scope of evidence disclosure by the prosecution. 

“A person’s fate is at stake,” Hideko Hakamata told a news conference in Tokyo on Nov. 26. “If the proposal goes through, it will make no sense of why Iwao spent 47 years and seven months in detention. I want them to think about this from a human perspective.”

In April, the Justice Ministry began discussions in a subcommittee of the Legislative Council, an advisory panel to the justice minister, on reviewing the retrial system, which reopens criminal cases to provide relief for victims of wrongful convictions.

The decision was prompted by the case of Hakamata, 89, who had been on death row for the murder of a family in Shizuoka. He was exonerated last year, 43 years after his first request for retrial, highlighting serious delays in providing relief.

The main point of contention in the council’s subcommittee is the rules for evidence disclosure.

A proposal to limit the scope to “evidence related to the grounds stated in the retrial petition” has emerged as the leading option.

“Evidence does not belong to the prosecution alone,” Hideko, 92, said. “Everything they have should be presented and submitted to the court’s judgment.”

In Hakamata’s case, it took 29 years from the filing of the retrial request until the disclosure of evidence that proved decisive for his acquittal.

Hideko also urged that the prosecution be barred from appealing court decisions to grant retrials.

Lawyers have similarly called for a ban, arguing that such appeals have “stolen time from the lives of those wrongfully convicted.” However, a majority of members within the subcommittee are opposed to prohibiting prosecutors’ appeals.

For Hakamata, nine years passed between the court’s decision to open a retrial and the actual commencement of proceedings.

“They repeat the same things over and over again (in the retrial request proceedings and the retrial itself),” Hideko said. “If they keep doing it until we die, we cannot endure it.”

A cross-party group of lawmakers has already submitted a bill to the Diet that includes provisions for broad evidence disclosure and a ban on prosecutorial appeals.

Hideko expressed support for the legislative changes proposed by the Diet members.

“Our only hope is to rely on the members of the parliamentary group,” she said.

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