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GIST: SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) -- "A former professional boxer and death-row inmate accused of a 1966 quadruple murder in central Japan is innocent, his elderly sister said Friday, in the first hearing of his retrial that is likely to lead to his exoneration.
Iwao Hakamada, 87, was exempted from attending the retrial at the Shizuoka District Court, as his mental state has deteriorated after spending nearly half a century behind bars before new evidence led to his release in 2014.
"I will plead my brother's innocence for him. Please grant Iwao true freedom," 90-year-old Hideko said, appearing at the trial in his place.
Prosecutors say Hakamada is guilty, arguing in their opening statement that it was possible for him to have committed the crime at the miso shop where he was working as a live-in employee, as the suspect was likely to be someone related to the company.
Hakamada was arrested for killing the firm's senior managing director, his wife and two of their children. They were found stabbed to death at their Shizuoka Prefecture home, which had burned down.
His defense team claimed that Hakamada has had his life stolen from him and that the responsibility lay not just with the investigative authorities, but also with his counsel and judges.
"What really needs to be tried in this retrial is our country's judicial system, which brought about false charges," the defense said.
Presiding Judge Koshi Kunii said he exempted Hakamada from appearing in court because he "still has symptoms associated with detention" based on his doctor's diagnosis.
It is the first such case in which a surviving defendant has been exempt from attending hearings of their retrial, according to his defense team.
About 30 people gathered near the Shizuoka District Court to express their support for Hakamada, while he stayed at home in the city of Hamamatsu.
Holding banners and signs, they urged a swift acquittal, pointing to his advanced age.
According to the supporters, Hakamada seemed to act the same as usual as he ate his breakfast of fruit and corn and took his daily walk in the afternoon.
It is likely that Hakamada will be acquitted, as the criminal procedure law says that a retrial will be opened if there is "clear evidence to find the accused not guilty."
He initially confessed to the killings during intense interrogation but pleaded not guilty at his trial, where he was indicted for murder, robbery and arson.
His death sentence was finalized in 1980 based on a ruling that blood on five clothing items found in a miso tank 14 months after the murder matched the blood types of the victims and Hakamada.
The retrial comes after 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 in March, citing the unreliability of the main evidence used.
The high court said there was a strong possibility that the 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.
Prosecutors argue there was no basis for fabricating the evidence and plan to question a forensic scientist.
The Shizuoka District Court put aside five days for the hearings, but proceedings are unlikely to conclude by the end of this year.
It is the fifth time in postwar Japan that 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."
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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/
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