In a remarkable turn of events, a Japanese man who spent the longest time on death row in the world was acquitted after nearly 60 years of wrongful conviction. The Japanese public broadcaster, NHK, reported that on Thursday, Iwao Hakamada, now 88, was cleared of charges for which he was initially sentenced to death, marking a triumph for his family’s long battle for justice.
The Shizuoka District Court acquitted Hakamada during a retrial for the 1966 murders of four people in central Japan. Hakamada had spent 45 years awaiting execution before the court ordered his release in 2014, citing doubts about the evidence used to convict him.
Hakamada, a former boxer, was accused of stabbing his former employer and the employer’s family to death and setting their house on fire. Although he initially confessed to the crime, he later recanted and maintained his innocence throughout the trial. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to death in 1968, a sentence upheld by Japan’s Supreme Court in 1980.
In 2008, one of the three judges from the original trial, Norimichi Kumamoto, petitioned the Supreme Court to grant Hakamada a retrial, but his request was denied. After his release, Hakamada lived with his older sister, Hideko, who had tirelessly fought for decades to clear his name.
Amnesty International praised Hakamada’s acquittal, calling it a “landmark moment for justice” and urging Japan to abolish the death penalty. The organization stated, “After nearly half a century wrongfully imprisoned and a decade awaiting retrial, this ruling acknowledges the profound injustice he endured throughout his life,” and hailed the decision as the culmination of an inspiring struggle to restore his name.
