An 88-year-old man, recognized as the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, has been acquitted by a Japanese court.
Iwao Hakamada was convicted in 1968 for the brutal murder of his boss, the man’s wife, and their two teenage children, spending over five decades on death row. Recently, new evidence emerged suggesting that investigators may have tampered with evidence that led to his conviction for this quadruple murder.
This landmark verdict concludes one of Japan’s most prominent and protracted legal cases. The high-profile nature of the case drew significant public interest, with approximately 500 people gathering in the courtroom in Shizuoka to witness the proceedings.
As the ruling was announced, supporters of Hakamada outside the court celebrated with shouts of “banzai,” a traditional Japanese expression of joy. In a significant development in 2014, he was released from prison and granted a retrial after defense attorneys successfully demonstrated that DNA evidence from blood stains on clothing linked to the crime scene did not match Hakamada’s DNA.
Due to a decline in his mental health, Hakamada has been living under the care of his sister. Extended legal battles delayed the start of his retrial until last year, and it culminated in Thursday morning’s decisive verdict, determining his innocence and avoiding the possibility of capital punishment.
Remarkably, Hakamada is only the fifth death row inmate to receive a retrial in Japan since World War II, marking a significant moment in the country’s judicial history.
