PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Defense lawyers and supporters of Iwao Hakamada expressed disgust and bewilderment over prosecutors’ decision to seek a murder conviction in the retrial of the 87-year-old who had spent decades on death row. “We don’t know the purpose of (their decision), if it’s for the organization or for saving face, but we’re disappointed,” Hideyo Ogawa, one of the lawyers, said at a news conference in Shizuoka city on July 10. Ogawa said prosecutors’ continued attempt to prove Hakamada’s guilt in the killing of four people in 1966 will be impossible because their arguments haven’t changed since he was granted a retrial in March. The defense lawyer described the prosecutors’ plan as an “outrageous act against victims of false accusations.” Hakamada was sentenced to death in 1968 after being found guilty of murdering four family members in Shizuoka Prefecture. He has consistently maintained his innocence. In March this year, the Tokyo High Court granted him a retrial after new evidence came to light. The court also said evidence used to convict him was “likely fabricated.”
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PHOTO CAPTION: "Iwao Hakamada's sister, Hideko, sits beside lawyer Hideyo Ogawa as he explains 'fabricated evidence' in Shizuoka on July 10."
STORY: "Lawyers slam 'outrageous plan of prosecutors in Hakamada case, by reporters Hisashi Homma, Yuichi Koyama and Kaname Ohira, published by The Asahi Shimbun, on July 11, 2023.
GIST: "Defense lawyers and supporters of Iwao Hakamada expressed disgust and bewilderment over prosecutors’ decision to seek a murder conviction in the retrial of the 87-year-old who had spent decades on death row.
“We don’t know the purpose of (their decision), if it’s for the organization or for saving face, but we’re disappointed,” Hideyo Ogawa, one of the lawyers, said at a news conference in Shizuoka city on July 10.
Ogawa said prosecutors’ continued attempt to prove Hakamada’s guilt in the killing of four people in 1966 will be impossible because their arguments haven’t changed since he was granted a retrial in March.
The defense lawyer described the prosecutors’ plan as an “outrageous act against victims of false accusations.”
Hakamada was sentenced to death in 1968 after being found guilty of murdering four family members in Shizuoka Prefecture. He has consistently maintained his innocence.
In March this year, the Tokyo High Court granted him a retrial after new evidence came to light. The court also said evidence used to convict him was “likely fabricated.”
Prosecutors did not file a special appeal against the high court’s retrial order.
An acquittal is virtually certain since the Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that “clear evidence that would lead to an acquittal” is necessary for a retrial.
However, prosecutors said they intend to prove Hakamada’s guilt at the retrial at the Shizuoka District Court.
The defense lawyers and Hideko Hakamada, Iwao’s sister, have long been seeking an early acquittal because of Hakamada’s age and health issues. They said prosecutors are just “stalling for time” by rehashing the same contentions.
“Iwao is 87 years old, and Hideko is 90 years old. How do prosecutors value people’s lives?” Ogawa said.
Hideko said of the prosecutors’ plan: “I think it’s for the convenience of the prosecutors’ office. We have no choice but to eventually win in court.”
Regarding the prolonging of the court procedures, she said, “We have been supporting (Iwao) for 57 years, so it doesn’t matter if it is extended for another two or three years.”
Iwao, who developed mental disorders during his decades behind bars, got up later than usual, around 1:30 p.m., on July 10, and went for a drive in a supporter’s car.
Five pieces of clothing that Hakamada was supposedly wearing at the time of the crime were used as the main evidence leading to the guilty verdict in 1968.
The bloodstains in the clothes, which were said to have been immersed in a miso tank for more than a year, were reddish in color.
In the Tokyo High Court in March, the defense team submitted scientific test results showing that bloodstains would turn blackish after such a long time in a miso tank.
The high court ruled there was a possibility that the evidence was not only fabricated but planted.
The defense team on July 10 announced its plan for the retrial.
The lawyers requested that the five pieces of clothing be excluded from retrial, saying, “An investigative organization, which became anxious over whether it could secure a conviction, fabricated the evidence.”ichi Koyama and Kaname Ohira.)
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/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
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.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
