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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Death |
Years Imprisoned: |
48 |
Year Crime: |
1966 |
Year Convicted: |
1968 |
Year Cleared: |
2015 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Japan |
County or Region of Crime: |
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City of Crime: |
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Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Iwao Hakamada was wrongly convicted on September 11, 1968 of of burglary, arson and murder in the deaths on June 30, 1966 of a company president, his wife and their two children in Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan. Hakamada and the murdered man worked for the same company, and he was one of Hakamada's bosses. In July 1966 Hakamada was taken into custody and after being intensively interrogated for 264 hours over 23 days, Hakamada confessed, but he retracted it as coerced. During his trial Hakamada testified that the police kicked and clubbed him to obtain his confession that he asserted was false. Following his two year trial Hakamada was convicted and sentenced to death. In 1980 Japan's Supreme Court denied his first appeal for a retrial. DNA testing of clothing worn by the murderer did not match Hakamada, and he filed a petition for a retrial. Additional DNA testing in 2011 supported he wasn't the murderer. Further DNA testing in 2012 excluded Hakamada's DNA from matching the DNA of blood found on a T-shirt found among the murderer's clothes. On March 27, 2014 Hakamada's conviction was reversed and a new trial ordered based on new DNA evidence supporting that the police fabricated evidence. Hakamada was released on March 27, 2014 after almost 48 years in custody -- and more than 45 years on death row. The prosecution's appeal of Hakamada's release was denied." |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
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Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
30 |
Age When Released: |
78 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
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Information Source 1: |
"Japanese man freed after 45 years on death row as court orders retrial, By Justin McCurry (in Tokyo), Guardian (London, UK), March 27, 2014" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/japanese-man-freed-death-row-retrial |
Information Source 2: |
"Japan Couple Freed After 20 Years in Doubt Over Murder Guilt, By Agence France-Presse, NDTV.com, October 26, 2015" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/japan-couple-freed-after-20-years-in-doubt-over-murder-guilt-1236446 |
Information Source 3: |
"Iwao Hakamada, en.wikipedia.org (last visited May 22, 2016)" |
Information Location 3: |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwao_Hakamada |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org