Iwao Hakamada; Japan: Bulletin: He has been awarded $1.4 million after 46 years spent on death row inJapan, The Guardian Reports, noting that the former boxer, now 89, was exonerated in 2024 of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others…"The world's longest-serving death row prisoner was freed last month after nearly 50 years on death row. After freeing a man who spent half a century on death row, will Japan keep using the death penalty? Read more The Shizuoka District Court, in a decision dated Monday, said that “the claimant shall be granted 217,362,500,000 yen”, a court spokesperson told AFP. The same court ruled in September that Hakamada was not guilty in a retrial and that police had tampered with evidence.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of  scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects (especially young suspects)  are to widely used interrogation methods  such as  the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As  all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including inducement. deception (read ‘outright lies’) physical violence,  and even physical and mental torture.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  "Hakamada had suffered “inhumane interrogations meant to force a statement (confession)“ that he later withdrew, the court said at the time. The final amount is a record for compensation of this kind, local media said. But Hakamada’s legal team has said the money falls short of the pain he suffered. Decades of detention – with the threat of execution constantly looming – took a major toll on Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers have said, describing him as “living in a world of fantasy."

--------------------------------------------------

STORY: "Exonerated prisoner awarded $1.4m after 46 years spent on death row in Japan," published by The Guardian, on March 25, 2025.

SUB-HEADING: "Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest serving death row prisoner, had been wrongly convicted of a quadruple murder."

GIST: "A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded $1.4m in compensation, an official has said.

The payout represents 12,500 yen ($83) for each day of the 46 years that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last.

The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated in 2024 of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others.

After freeing a man who spent half a century on death row, will Japan keep using the death penalty?

Read more

The Shizuoka District Court, in a decision dated Monday, said that “the claimant shall be granted 217,362,500,000 yen”, a court spokesperson told AFP.

The same court ruled in September that Hakamada was not guilty in a retrial and that police had tampered with evidence.

Hakamada had suffered “inhumane interrogations meant to force a statement (confession)“ that he later withdrew, the court said at the time. The final amount is a record for compensation of this kind, local media said.

But Hakamada’s legal team has said the money falls short of the pain he suffered.

Decades of detention – with the threat of execution constantly looming – took a major toll on Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers have said, describing him as “living in a world of fantasy”.

Hakamada was the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan’s postwar history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/25/iwao-hakamada-worlds-longest-death-row-prisoner-japan-compensation-after-release

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;

—————————————————————————————————

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;

---------------------------------------------------------------