Tokyo’s high court on Monday ordered a retrial for an 87-year-old former boxer who has been on death row for more than five decades after his murder conviction that his lawyers said was based on forced confession and fabricated evidence.
The Tokyo High Court said Iwao Hakamada deserves a retrial because of a possibility that a key evidence that led to his conviction could have been fabricated by investigators, the Japan Bar Association said in a statement.
Hakamada was out of prison since 2014, but still not cleared of charges, when the Shizuoka District Court in central Japan suspended his execution and ordered a retrial and his release.
That ruling was overturned by the Tokyo High Court until the Supreme Court in 2020 ordered the court to reconsider.
His defense lawyers rushed out of the courtroom and flashed banners saying “Retrial.”
“We won his retrial.
I’m so glad, and that’s all I can say,” said his 90-year-old sister Hideko, who has devoted her life to prove her brother’s innocence.
Hakamada was convicted of murder in the 1966 killing of a company manager and three of his family members, and setting fire to their central Japan home, where he was a live-in employee.
He was sentenced to death two years later.
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