Hearing of Hakamada Case Concludes

Shizuioka District Court concluded hearings on Hakanada case, a retrial in which a man, Iwao Hakamada, had once been sentenced death penalty for murder of four people. While the prosecutors insisted on death penalty on Hakamada, the lawyers of defendant argued that Hakamada was innocent, denying the evidence as fabricated. The court will pass over the sentence on September 26th. 

It was 1966 when the executive director of a miso factory and his family were killed, and one of the employees, Hakamada, was arrested with suspect of murder. The prosecutors submitted some clothes stained with blood as evidence of murder to the court and Shizuoka District Court found Hakamada guilty in 1968 and the penalty was fixed by the Supreme Court in 1980.

 

In the process of demanding retrial, the defendant lawyers submitted new evidence with a result of DNA survey on the clothes, indicating that the prosecutors could have fabricated the evidence. The Supreme Court remanded the case to the high court in 2020, and retrial started in October 2023. This is the fifth case, in each of which a defendant once sentenced death penalty proceeded to a retrial. All the defendants in former four cases were found innocent.

 

In the final hearing on May 22nd, the prosecutors insisted that the clothes, especially the trousers, found in a tank of brewing miso had been possessed by Hakamada and argued that fabrication was impossible and unrealistic. “Although Hakamada has mental illness with long detention, it does not make a reason to change the penalty, considering cruelty of the crime,” said the prosecutors demanding death penalty.

 

The defendant lawyers emphasized that the evidence for death penalty was totally invalid. They also indicated that there had been a group in the police organization who worked hard for making Hakamada a criminal. “It is needless to say that putting a wrong person on death row is a significant crime of a state,” said the lawyers in the last hearing.

 

Hideko Hakamada, Hakamada’s elder sister who has been taking care of Iwao, asked a sentence finding Hakamada innocent. “I hope to let my brother Iwao live his life as a human, even though his lifetime is not left so long,” said Hideko in the hearing. Iwao and she have consistently been denying the crime of murder.

 

In the four previous cases in which death sentences were overturned, the police coerced the suspects confession. Those cases occurred in the post-war time when investigation of Japanese police was sometimes heavily dependent on confession of suspects. While the courts in the first series of trials recognized the confession of Hakamada valid, they did not employ the confession in the retrials, focusing more on the clothes, according to the defendant lawyers.

 

The prosecutors even did not effectively object in the retrials to the defendant’s argument over the DNA survey, only presenting certain possibility that the evidence would be valid. Concerning validity of the evidence and previous examples, it is generally predicted that the court will find Hakamada innocent in the sentence in September.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when ...
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, ...
Read more

Not A Royal Wedding

The bride called her husband an indispensable existence and their marriage was necessary choice to protect their mind. The groom insisted on his life as only once and his right to be with his loved one. Her father wanted his daughter’s marriage to be celebrated by the people. The people were not sure whether the family was happy as a whole. Is this the traditional Japanese social system that makes no one happy? Mako Komuro, as known as Princess Mako during her life in one of the royal family Akishino, held on Tuesday a press conference with her husband Kei Komuro, right after submitting marriage report to local government. It was something different from ordinary Q&A session, because Mako was afraid of her mental uneasiness brought by some questions not based on truth. So, the event was actually one-sided speech to the reporters. Mako emphasized that the Kei’s decision of studying abroad five years ago had not been his original idea, but a result of her request to establish an over...
Read more