The world’s longest serving death row inmate has been acquitted after a court found that the evidence used against him was fabricated.
Iwao Hakamada, an 88 year old man, had been on death row for over 50 years after being found guilty for the murder of his boss, his boss’s wife and his boss’s two children. He was accused of murdering the four, burning down their home and stealing 200,000 yen.
Hakamada denied involvement but later gave a confession which he claims was coerced after 12 hour long interrogations that included beatings.
Mr Hakamada was offered a retrial under the grounds that there was suspicion that the evidence used to convict him may have been tampered with. The evidence in question was bloodstained clothes found in a tank of miso. The DNA on the clothes however was not Mr Hakamada’s and his lawyers insist that police faked the evidence.
In 2014, Mr Hakamada was granted release and a retrial by a judge who agreed that the clothes did not belong to the accused however it took years for the retrial to happen and for Mr Hakamada to finally be declared innocent.
Mr Hakamada was unable to attend the hearings due to his ill health and deteriorated mental abilities.