September 27, 2024

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko on September 26, commenting on the acquittal in the retrial of Hakamada Iwao who spent nearly half a century as a death-row inmate, said that the current criminal retrial system should be improved without delay.

Hamakada was sentenced to death over a 1966 case in which four members of a family running a soybean processing firm in Shizuoka Prefecture were murdered. With tenacious efforts made by Hakamada, who maintains his innocence, along with his lawyers and supporters, a retrial finally started in 2023 at the Shizuoka District Court. In the retrial, the district court on September 26 ruled that Hakamada is not guilty. It has been 58 years since he was arrested and 44 years since his death sentence was finalized.

JCP EC Chair Tamura in her comment noted that it took more than 40 years for Hakamada to win a retrial, and said that the reason for this is that the existing law on criminal procedures has very little provision to allow a retrial. Pointing out that disclosure of the prosecution evidence and the proceedings on an appeal for retrial are up to a single judge’s decision, Tamura said, “A revision of the retrial system is urgently needed so that the prosecution team in a court examination on a retrial request will be obliged to fully disclose evidence obtained and will be prevented from filing a complaint against a retrial order. The JCP will strongly call on all parties to work on this matter in order for an early rescue of victims of false accusation and imprisonment.”

Past related article:
> Criminal retrial system should be revised to save victims of false accusation [March 15, 2023]