GIST: "The Tokyo High Court is set to decide whether to reopen a high-profile 1966 Shizuoka Prefecture murder case on March 13, defense lawyers in the case said Monday.
The development comes after the Supreme Court ordered the high court in 2020 to revoke its earlier decision to deny a retrial for Iwao Hakamata, 86, and redo its deliberations.
The focus of the case is whether five items of clothing found inside a miso tank about 14 months after the murder can be recognized as the clothing worn by the perpetrator at the crime scene.
In the case, an executive of a miso-maker and three family members were murdered in the city of Shimizu, now part of the city of Shizuoka.
Hakamata was sentenced to death by the Shizuoka District Court in 1968, and the sentence was finalized by the Supreme Court in 1980.
Hakamata was released after the district court decided to give him a retrial in 2014, but the decision was overturned by Tokyo High Court later.
The clothing items in question were considered conclusive evidence to convict Hakamata. But the defense has argued that they were fabricated evidence, noting that blood stains on clothing dipped in miso for a long time should turn nearly black, instead of staying blood red.
The high court will make a decision on whether to give a retrial also based on older evidence.
In its closing statement last December, the defense side argued that “discoloration progresses due to hemoglobin in the blood decomposing and oxidizing, causing the reddish color to disappear, and amino acids and proteins in the blood reacting chemically with miso components.”
The claim was based on an experiment in which clothes were soaked in miso and on expert testimony. The defense claimed that a third party had planted the evidence prior to its discovery.
Meanwhile, prosecutors sought the dismissal of the defense side’s request for a retrial, stating in a written opinion that the results of the defense’s experiment were “obtained under limited and specific conditions.”
They said that their own experiment confirmed a reddish color in the area around the blood stains, and that “coagulation and drying may have made it difficult for a chemical reaction to take place.”
In issuing the 2020 order for the Tokyo High Court to redo its deliberations, the Supreme Court said the high court did not sufficiently consider the change in the color of blood stains.
In a supplemental opinion, the top court said, “If the possibility of (the perpetrator’s clothes) being immersed in miso for 14 months is denied, reasonable doubt will arise as to the guilt of the culprit.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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