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.
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.
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***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.