Japan’s World’s Longest-Serving Death Row Inmate Is Exonerated After 55 Years

A Japanese court cleared Iwao Hakamada, 88, of all charges, ending his record as the longest-serving death row convict in history.

A Japanese court has exonerated an 88-year-old man who was the world’s longest-serving death row convict in a historic ruling.

Iwao Hakamada was convicted in 1968 of the quadruple murder of his boss, the man’s wife, and their two teenage daughters. Hakamada spent more than 50 years on execution row. But new information about the reliability of the evidence against him resulted in a retrial and, in the end, his exoneration.

Evidence that included bloodstained garments found in a miso tank soon after the horrific murder in Shizuoka, west of Tokyo, led to Hakamada’s first conviction. He was charged by the authorities with killing the family, taking 200,000 yen, and setting their house on fire. Hakamada first refuted the accusations but eventually made what he called a forced confession after being subjected to rigorous questioning that allegedly lasted up to 12 hours every day.

When Hakamada’s defense team claimed that the bloodstained clothes’ DNA evidence did not match his, implying that they might have belonged to someone else, the decades-long drama took a dramatic turn. Judge Hiroaki Murayama declared in 2014 that “it is unjust to detain the defendant further, as the possibility of his innocence has become clear to a respectable degree” after pointing out that the garments were not Hakamada’s. This claim was crucial in obtaining a new trial for Hakamada, who has been living with his sister since his release in 2014 because of his worsening mental health.

The Shizuoka District Court ruled on Thursday that Hakamada was innocent and that the main piece of evidence presented by the prosecution had been falsified. Following the announcement of the verdict, fans outside the courthouse broke into yells of “banzai,” which is Japanese for “hurray.” With some 500 people waiting for seats in the courtroom, the event marked the end of one of Japan’s most notorious and protracted legal battles, even though Hakamada was not there owing to health concerns.

According to Hakamada’s attorneys and family, his extended incarceration—which included much of it in solitary confinement—has had a detrimental effect on his mental state. His 91-year-old sister Hideko has been a steadfast supporter of his release and has expressed great relief over the verdict of the retrial. “A burden has finally been removed from my shoulders,” she said.

In Japan, death row retrials are incredibly uncommon; Hakamada’s case is only the fifth such case in the post-war era. Since Japan is one of the few developed countries that still uses the death penalty, Hakamada’s acquittal raises important concerns about the legal system and how evidence is handled in capital cases.

Hakamada’s case serves as a sobering reminder of the possibility of injustice within the judicial system, underscoring the need for change and further examination of the evidence in significant criminal cases as Japan continues to struggle with its capital sentence legislation.