TOYKO — A Japanese man said to have spent the world’s longest time on death row was cleared in a retrial of the 1966 murders of four people on Thursday, ending his family’s search for justice for a wrongful conviction.
On Thursday, the Shizuoka district court acquitted the former boxer.
He spent 48 years behind bars — more than 45 of them on death row — making him the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, according to the rights group, Amnesty International.
Hakamata’s lawyers had argued that DNA tests on bloodstained clothing said to be their client’s showed the blood was not his.
Amnesty International hailed the exoneration as a “pivotal moment for justice” and urged Japan to scrap the death penalty.
Persons:
TOYKO, Iwao Hakamata, Hideko Hakamata, ”, “, Hakamada, Hakamata, Hideko, Hideyo Ogawa
Organizations:
Prosecutors, Japan’s, Amnesty, Norimichi, Amnesty International, ” Amnesty
Locations:
Shizuoka, Japan, Norimichi Kumamoto