Posted on 03/28/2014 4:25:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Hideko Hakamada, sister of former boxer Iwao Hakamada who has been on death row in Japan for 48 years, holding a picture of her young brother Iwao during an interview outside the Tokyo Detention House in Tokyo. (AFP) A man believed to be the world's longest-serving death row inmate was Thursday granted a retrial in Japan over multiple murders in 1966, decades after doubts emerged about his guilt.
Shizuoka District Court decided to "start the retrial over the case" of Iwao Hakamada, 78, who was convicted for the grisly murder of his boss and the man's family, a court official said.
Delivering his ruling, presiding judge Hiroaki Murayama cited possible planting of evidence by investigators to win a conviction as they sought to bring closure to a crime that shocked the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at emirates247.com ...
“The only thing cruel and unusual about the death penalty are the stays.” — El Rushbo
78?
Convicted in 1966 and sentenced to death.
Still alive in 2014?
Just release him already.
Reprieve hearing for the dead victims..., still pending...
There were still Japanese soldiers dug in the Phillipine jungles when this joker was sentenced....
Wait'...in 48 years this insinuation of planting evidence is just now coming to light...
People don’t realize that the Japanese legal system is very different than ours. When you are arrested in Japan you are assumed guilty and they will put all sorts of pressure on you to admit that guilt. Also, like the US, the prosecutors/Judges would consider it a grave loss of face to lose so the deck is very much stacked against you so most just plead guilty. Actually the more I think about it the more I think that the US and Japanese systems are the same after all.
I started to read your post and was all ready to write your wrong but you saved yourself at the end.
Japanese laws are very different —after your initial arrest they can hold you with NO CHARGES FILED for up to 24 days, I believe, and they are relentlessly interrogating you that whole time.
The pressure is intense, and there are many cases of innocent people confessing to crimes they were innocent of.
The conviction rate in Japan is over 99%.
Even in Japan an innocent person getting near the needle is rare.
264 hours of brutal interrogation before a “confession” along with most likely planted and altered evidence...
The emphasis on confessions in Japan is excessive.
Did you know that in Japan there is no obligation for the jailers to even INFORM your family that you have been executed? It is always by hanging.
It is common for them to answer all inquiries about the prisoner with, “He is busy” or “He is unavailable” —for months they will do that, sometimes for years.
Daily life in a Japanese prison is much more highly regimented than would be believed here, I think. It is mostly clean and meals are regular, but there is a very high emphasis on conformity to regimentation —something that is already stressed in ordinary “over-the-wall” Japanese society.
Non-Japanese who emerge alive from the system (almost always followed by swift deportation) are described as unbelievable polite, and utterly transformed.
"The judge also ordered Hakamada's release, saying continued confinement "goes against justice".
Better late than never, I guess. I wonder if he has any living relatives or friends.
His sister, 81 yo, has been working to have his case reexamined for the past decades.
That’s longer than some first degree murder sentences handed down in the U.S.
Still alive in 2014?
Just release execute him him already.
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There, fixed it.
There are numerous examples in the U.S. where framed individuals were imprisoned for decades when cops and prosecutors knew they were innocent.
I think the Japanese have the right idea about making prison a place where you have to conform and adhere, not get all sorts of catering that US prisoners get.
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