SUB-HEADING: "Japan to Hold Retrial for Decades-Old Death Sentence...Case Highlights Cruelty of ‘Hostage Justice System.’
GIST: "This month, public prosecutors in Japan said they would not appeal the Tokyo High Court’s decision to hold a retrial for Iwao Hakamada, an 87-year-old former professional boxer arrested in August 1966 and sentenced to death for the murder of a family of four.
This is the fifth time a death penalty case will be retried in Japan. In earlier cases, the defendants were all acquitted.
Hakamada’s case is just one of countless examples of Japan’s so-called “hostage justice system,” in which suspects are frequently detained prior to judgement for long and arbitrary periods – sometimes up to several months or years – to obtain their confessions. According to his legal team, in 1966 police interrogated Hakamada for an average of 12 hours a day, with some interrogations running as long as 17 hours. He was questioned without his lawyer, as permitted under Japanese law, and denied water and restroom breaks. In a letter recalling his experience, Hakamada said authorities threatened him, saying, “if we report your cause of death as an illness, that’s the end of it,” before beating him with a police baton.
It’s now rare for Japanese police to physically abuse suspects during interrogation. But authorities still coerce confessions during the pre-indictment detention period. Suspects can’t apply for bail before being indicted, and courts routinely deny bail during trial for those who do not confess. Most detainees are held in cells located inside police stations and placed under constant surveillance, including during mealtimes and in bathrooms. Courts often issue restrictions on communications, denying the accused permission to meet, call, or write letters to anyone other than their lawyers. More than 99 percent of Japanese trials result in convictions.
For decades, Hakamada has claimed his innocence. If he is found not guilty, his case will be another stark reminder not just of the flawed justice process in Japan, but that the death penalty should be abolished because it is a cruel, irreversible and irreparable form of punishment. Activists have long raised concerns that death-row inmates are notified of their execution only the day it occurs. For years, Hakamada lived in fear of being executed on any given day.
Japan should urgently reform its justice system by eliminating the “hostage justice system” and abolishing the death penalty."
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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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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