PUBLISHER'S NOTE: FALSE CONFESSIONS:
This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects (especially young suspects) are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
-----------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:In 2018, 'Arab News' ran an Agence France Presse story on the acquittal of a Japanese woman and her former partner, on a retrial for the alleged murder of the woman’s 11-year-old daughter after the pair had spent about two decades in jail. “There is a possibility that the two were forced into making false confessions after (investigators) instilled fear in them and applied excessive psychological pressure,” presiding Judge Goichi Nishino said, according to Kyodo News agency. I have crafted this post on the acquittal of the couple because of its parallels with the case of Iwao Hakamada - believed to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate - who also also was brought under brutal pressure to confess in circumstances where there was no tangible evidence proving his guilt - and soon is hoping to have a retrial which will finally clear his name, while he is still alive. (Which will be wonderful news as well for Hakamada's many supporters around the world.) The tool of brutal interrogation has been deeply in imbedded in Japan's criminal justice system for many generations, leading invariably to wrongful convictions of innocent people such as Keiko Aoki, Tatsuhiro Boku and who knows how many others. This is an opportunity for Japan to show the world that it has truly changed by freeing Iwao Hakamada, now 85, while there is still time - and by abolishing its shameful death penalty.
Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
-----------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: (From the 'Arab News 'Agence Francde Libre' story below.)..."The acquittal (of Keiko Aoki and Tatsuhiro Boku) comes after Iwao Hakamada, believed to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, walked free from jail in 2014 following decades in solitary confinement, in a rare about-face for Japan’s rigid justice system. He had been accused of being responsible for the grisly 1966 murder of his boss and the man’s family, but doubts arose about the reliability of his confession." (Sadly, that didn't last long. A higher court re-instituted the murder charge - and the case is still before the courts. HL)
STORY: "After 20 years in jail, Japan duo found not guilty," published by Arab News (Agence France Presse) on August 11, 2018.
GIST: "A Japanese woman and her former partner were acquitted Wednesday in a retrial for the alleged murder of the woman’s 11-year-old daughter after the pair had spent about two decades in jail.
They were released in October last year after a new trial was ordered due to serious questions about their guilt, including the validity of their confessions, in the arson murder for which they had been convicted.
And on Wednesday the Osaka District Court formally found Keiko Aoki and Tatsuhiro Boku not guilty, a member of their support group told AFP.
The couple had been found guilty of setting their house on fire by spraying gasoline in the garage, a blaze that killed Aoki’s daughter Megumi, in an attempt to claim insurance money.
In the ruling, the court said that confessions made by Aoki and Boku when under investigation were invalid, according to the supporter, who asked not to be named.
Details of the acquital were included on the support group’s website and were widely reported by major Japanese media.
“There is a possibility that the two were forced into making false confessions after (investigators) instilled fear in them and applied excessive psychological pressure,” presiding Judge Goichi Nishino said, according to Kyodo News agency.
The court also ruled it was possible the fire was an accident.
The acquittal comes after Iwao Hakamada, believed to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, walked free from jail in 2014 following decades in solitary confinement, in a rare about-face for Japan’s rigid justice system.
He had been accused of being responsible for the grisly 1966 murder of his boss and the man’s family, but doubts arose about the reliability of his confession."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/967811
------------------------------------------------------------------
ROLE OF BRUTAL POLICE INTERROGATION IN AOKI and BUKO CASE: From Japan Times editorial: August 12, 2016, following their acquittal, bearing the lead: "Yet again we have acquittals of people falsely charged and convicted based on wrongful confessions coerced by investigators."
EXCERPT: The decision Wednesday by the Osaka District Court finding Keiko Aoki and Tatsuhiro Boku innocent must be followed up by a thorough examination by both the investigation authorities and the judiciary to find out why the prosecution’s case against the pair — based almost entirely on confessions made during interrogation that were retracted in court — went unchallenged.
EXCERPT: "The prosecution’s case held that Aoki and Boku, arrested shortly after the July 1995 death of the girl in a fire at their home in Osaka, had conspired to kill her for the benefits from a life insurance scheme taken out on the victim — that Aoki made her daughter take a bath, and then Boku sprayed gasoline in the garage next to the bathroom and set it on fire with a lighter. In the absence of material evidence, the key to the case was a confession that Boku allegedly made to interrogators detailing how he set the garage on fire, along with a statement by Aoki acknowledging her own complicity."
EXCERPT: "What proved key to reopening the case was a test performed by their lawyers — and later by the prosecution themselves — to re-enact the scene of the alleged arson based on the account that Boku gave to investigators. The result — in both the defense and prosecution tests — clearly contradicted what he said during interrogation, thus putting the credibility of his confession in doubt. The defense test instead pointed to the possibility — also endorsed in the district court decision this week — that the fire was caused accidentally by gasoline leaking from the tank of a vehicle in the garage that was set alight by the pilot light of the bathtub water heater."
EXCERPT: "Furthermore, police investigation reports and notes kept by investigators — disclosed as evidence in the retrial process — showed that the officers who questioned the two used coercive and deceitful tactics to get them to confess, during which they both wavered between confessing to and denying the charges. In its acquittal of Aoki and Boku, the district court rejected the credibility of their confessions as evidence, saying it is suspected that the police investigators put the two in a “situation where they had no choice but to make false confessions” by “instilling fear and adding excessive psychological pressure” from the time they were arrested."
EXCERPT: "Wednesday’s ruling exposed how police investigators led the suspects into confessing to acts they had not committed, but does not reflect on how the judiciary itself failed to challenge the investigators’ version of events."
EXCERPT: "Wrongful convictions have often been reversed on the introduction of new evidence — either that which had been previously withheld by prosecutors or that made available with technological advances, such as more precise DNA tests. But the fact that a test to re-enact the scene of this fire was performed only after the two had been convicted and spent years in prison points to negligence on the part of the investigators, who relied on confessions to build their case and then failed to verify them on scientific grounds.
EXCERPT: "Interrogation by investigators behind closed doors — which makes it difficult to objectively determine whether the suspects made their statements voluntarily — has long been blamed as a source for wrongful confessions, and the false convictions based largely on such confessions. The tendency remains for investigators to rely on confessions to build their cases when they lack material evidence. In the face of public criticism, the police and prosecutors have gradually introduced electronic recording of their interrogations to make the process more transparent. An amendment to the Criminal Investigation Procedure Law enacted in May made video-recording of the entire interrogation process mandatory — but that rule will apply only to criminal cases handled by lay judge trials and those exposed by prosecutors’ independent probes — which together account for about 3 percent of all criminal cases — and investigators will have the discretion to bypass electronic recording if they judge it will make it difficult for them to obtain meaningful confessions.
The entire editorial can be read at :
Hakamada retracted these statements at his trial, claiming that while he was detained he had been denied food and water, was not allowed to use a toilet, and was kicked and punched. In a letter to his sister he wrote: “…one of the interrogators put my thumb onto an ink-pad, drew it to the written confession record and ordered me, ‘write your name here!’, shouting at me, kicking me and wrenching my arm.” Hakamada had had only three short interviews with different defence lawyers prior to trial.
During his trial by the Shizuoka District Court in 1968, there were numerous inconsistencies in the evidence. Judges raised concerns that purported confessions presented by the Prosecution with Hakamada’s signature were not signed voluntarily. Of these 45 documents, only one was deemed to have been signed voluntarily and the remainder were declared to be inadmissible as evidence.
“I could not convince the other two judges that Hakamada was not guilty so I had to convict him as the decision was made by majority. Personally the fact that I had to write his judgement was against my conscience, something I still think about to this day.” Kumamoto Norimichi, Shizuoka District Court judge, 2007."
Iwao Hakamada was convicted and sentenced to death, and the conviction and sentence were upheld by the Supreme Court in 1980.
The entire case study can be read at:
https://adpan.org/japan-case-study-hakamada-iwao
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
