PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Hakamada was a live-in employee at a miso maker when he was arrested in 1966 for allegedly killing the firm's senior managing director, his wife and two of their children. They were found fatally stabbed at their house in Shizuoka, which had been burned down. The former professional boxer confessed to the killings during intense interrogation but pleaded not guilty at trial. His mental condition deteriorated during his long incarceration, especially after 1980, when his death sentence was finalized by the Supreme Court."
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STORY: "Prosecutors to seek conviction of retrial of 1966 murder," published by 'Mainichi Japan,' on July 9, 2023.
GIST: Prosecutors are preparing to argue for the conviction of a former death-row inmate at an upcoming retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder in central Japan, a source familiar with the matter said Saturday.
The move comes despite the prosecutors' decision not to appeal a high court order in March that granted a retrial to Iwao Hakamada, laying the ground for his exoneration.
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Hakamada, 87, spent nearly half a century behind bars before new evidence led to his release in 2014.
The prosecutors plan to convey their position on Monday to the Shizuoka District Court, where the case will be tried again, likely triggering a backlash from Hakamada's lawyers who have called for a swift conclusion of the trial and his acquittal.
It is the fifth time in postwar Japan that a decision for a retrial has been finalized for a case in which the death penalty had been given. The four previous cases all resulted in acquittals in the 1980s.
In March this year, the Tokyo High Court, which was ordered by the Supreme Court in 2020 to re-examine its 2018 decision not to reopen the case, reversed course and ordered the retrial, citing the unreliability of the main evidence used.
The high court said there was a strong possibility that five pieces of blood-stained clothing that Hakamada allegedly wore during the incident had been planted by investigators in the tank of miso soybean paste in which they were found.
According to the source, the prosecutors re-examined the key evidence following the high court decision and plan to dispute the assertion that it was planted.
Hakamada was a live-in employee at a miso maker when he was arrested in 1966 for allegedly killing the firm's senior managing director, his wife and two of their children.
They were found fatally stabbed at their house in Shizuoka, which had been burned down.
The former professional boxer confessed to the killings during intense interrogation but pleaded not guilty at trial.
His mental condition deteriorated during his long incarceration, especially after 1980, when his death sentence was finalized by the Supreme Court."
