Defendant Charged with Murder of a Girl Found Innocent

Kanazawa Branch of Nagoya High Court sentenced not guilty to a man who had been arrested and received seven years in prison with charge of murder of fifteen-year-old girl in Fukui city in 1986. The public prosecutors and the court ignored a crucial contradiction in the evidence they relied on, and the defendant requested retrial in 2004. It took more than twenty years for the court to reach a conclusion that the defendant was innocent.

Shoshi Maekawa, now 60, was arrested and indicted with suspect of murder on the girl who was in her house alone. The police argued that Maekawa stubbed the girl with cooking knife for many times. Maekawa pled against the suspicion, insisting that he had no acquaintance with the girl. The discussion was focused on witnesses of six people who testified that they saw Maekawa with blood on his shirt at the night of the murder.

 

Kanazawa Branch of Nagoya High Court found that a man began his testimony after he heard from interviewer of the police how his penalty on illegal use of drug would be reduced. The court indicated that the man had possibly been lying for his own benefit, but the investigation authorities relied on his testimony which was not guaranteed as true, while giving him various incentives.

 

Another man who saw the bloody Maekawa remembered the day with his memory about a TV program. But it was proved that the day of the TV program broadcast was a week different from the testimony of the man. The court doubted that the investigation authorities built up a story based on the testimony of the man who lied for his own benefit. The court criticized the public prosecutors of their maintenance of trial, knowing that the memory of TV program had a contradiction.

 

The court also failed in finding the contradiction. Although the first court, Fukui District Court, found Maekawa innocent, noticing strange transition in the testimony, the second court turned down the decision and sentenced guilty, recognizing that the testimonies of six witnesses were mostly making sense. The decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1997.

 

The request of retrial was accepted in 2011, but it was reversed by appeal from the public prosecutors. The decision by Kanazawa Branch of Nagoya High Court was about the second request of retrial, which was accepted in 2024 with evidence of false guidance for the witnesses by the public prosecutors. It took thirty-nine years for the authorities to realize that the arrest of Maekawa was wrong.

 

“The first court must have made the final decision. I am very sorry for your hardship for a long period of time,” said the chief judge, Keisuke Masuda. The case revealed that the police and the public prosecutors may fabricate a story of crime and conceal important evidence they have. It is urgent for the government to conclude their discussion about revision of the system of retrial, which started with regret on the case of Hakamada who had been on a death row with false suspicion for decades.

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