Tags
Aktuelle Nachrichten
America
Aus Aller Welt
Breaking News
Canada
DE
Deutsch
Deutschsprechenden
Europa
Europe
Global News
Internationale Nachrichten aus aller Welt
Japan
Japan News
Kanada
Konflikt
Korea
Krieg in der Ukraine
Latest news
Maps
Nachrichten
News
News Japan
Polen
Russischer Überfall auf die Ukraine seit 2022
Science
South Korea
Ukraine
Ukraine War Video Report
UkraineWarVideoReport
Ukrainian Conflict
United Kingdom
United States
United States of America
US
USA
USA Politics
Vereinigte Königreich Großbritannien und Nordirland
Vereinigtes Königreich
Welt
Welt-Nachrichten
Weltnachrichten
Wissenschaft
World
World News
6 Comments
***The Telegraph reports:***
A set of blood-stained trousers found in a tank of miso in 1967 sealed a young Iwao Hakamada’s destiny as the world’s longest serving death row inmate.
But on Thursday, former professional boxer Mr Hakamada, now 88, was finally acquitted by a Japanese court of the murder of his boss, the man’s wife and their two teenage children.
Mr Hakamada was too fragile to attend the hearing in person, but his sister and long-time supporter Hideko, 91, bowed in thanks to the judge, Koshi Kunii, who declared her brother “innocent” after a miscarriage of justice spanning more than five decades.
Hundreds of people had queued outside the Shizuoka district court for a seat to hear the verdict of a sensational case that has not only gripped the nation but also revived calls for Japan to scrap the death penalty.
Before he was released in 2014 pending his retrial, Mr Hakamada had spent 46 years on death row never knowing from one day to the next if it was his last. In Japan, prisoners are only [notified of their hanging](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/21/japan-executes-three-death-row-prisoners-first-hangings-since/) a few hours in advance.
**Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/26/japanese-man-acquitted-after-46-years-on-death-row/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/26/japanese-man-acquitted-after-46-years-on-death-row/)
The death penalty offers neither justice nor solace. Too often the cases are circumstantial and the defence is inadequate or outweighed by common feelings of upset and disgust at the alleged crime. It also takes away any potential of rehabilitation or societal restitution on the part of the accused. Life imprisonment or mental rehabilitation where a person can do community service (securely; excluding chain gang work) is preferable to a wrongful execution.
This is incredibly rare for Japan.
I’m more surprised that Japan actually changed its mind when it decided someone was guilty. Generally, in Japan, if the police arrest you, you’re guilty and no amount of evidence is going to convince them otherwise.
Such a sad situation, but finally a just outcome.
That’s a ripe old age for a death row inmate!