On Japan's secretive
death row,
inmate becomes cause
celebre
By CHISAKI WATANABE,
AP, from the Web, May 5, 2008
TOKYO, May 4 --Iwao Hakamada,
Japan's longest serving death row inmate, has insisted for 40 years that he is
innocent of the four murders he was convicted of. The evidence was suspect, he
says, and his confession was coerced.
Now the judge who wrote the ex-boxer's death sentence agrees.
"My feelings about Mr. Hakamada remain the same — I believe he is innocent,"
said Norimichi Kumamoto, who now reveals that he argued for acquittal but was
outvoted by two other judges in their secret deliberations before handing down
their ruling in 1968. As the junior judge, he was tasked with writing the death
sentence order.
The case — and Kumamoto's stunning admission last year — has fixed an
unprecedented spotlight on Japan's secretive criminal justice system, causing a
stir in legal circles and raising questions about the death penalty in a country
where it's rarely questioned.
Among those clamoring for a retrial are Amnesty International, Japanese boxers
and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the American boxer imprisoned nearly 20 years for
three murders before the convictions were overturned.
The case also has illuminated all the elements that critics say make Japanese
law enforcement inhumane: heavy-handed interrogations without lawyers present,
over-reliance on confessions, an arbitrary capital punishment system that can
keep inmates on death row for decades and then hang them with no advance notice.
Discussion of the case coincides with a rapid increase in the number of death
sentences. Of 165 people on death row, seven have been executed so far this
year, compared with just one in 2005.
Hakamada's case began with a fire on June 30, 1966, at the home of an executive
of a soybean paste company where he worked.
Hakamada said he helped douse the flames, whereupon the charred remains of the
bodies of the executive, his wife and two children were discovered — all stabbed
to death.
Two months later, Hakamada, then 30, was arrested and charged based on a
confession and a pair of his pajamas that contained tiny amounts of blood and
gasoline. He recanted the confession and pleaded not guilty at his trial. Prosecutors discarded the pajamas and presented a separate set of blood-soaked
clothes they said he wore for the killings.
Hakamada, his supporters and now the dissenting judge argue the case was full of
holes.
Hakamada says police kicked and clubbed him to get a confession. His lawyers say
he was interrogated for 264 hours over 23 days, the longest session lasting 16
hours and 20 minutes. They say the exhausted Hakamada was denied water or
bathroom visits during the interrogation.
"Investigators spent some ten hours on average for about 20 days to get his
confession. They wouldn't have been doing something so stupid if they had had
firm evidence," Kumamoto, the judge, told The Associated Press.
But an appeal to the Tokyo High Court and the Supreme Court failed to overturn
the conviction.
The physical evidence also raises questions. When he tried on the pants that
replaced the pajamas at his appeal, they didn't fit him.
The murder weapon, a fruit knife with a 4.8-inch blade, should have been more
damaged if it had been used to inflict more than 40 stab wounds on the victims,
the skeptics argue.
"This is a typical case of finding an innocent man guilty of a false charge
because the court trusts confessions made during investigations," said Hideyo
Ogawa, one of Hakamada's lawyers.
Under the Japanese system, judges don't disclose details of their consultations,
and Kumamoto, now 70 and in retirement, has faced harsh criticism in legal
circles for breaking the silence.
"I wanted someone in the Supreme Court to hear me just once at the end of my
life," Kumamoto said. "I'm glad I spoke up. I wish I had said it earlier, and
maybe something might have changed."
Hakamada's supporters hope the judge's reversal will turn the tide, though not
immediately; the Supreme Court has turned down a request for retrial, though his
lawyers have resubmitted the petition for further consideration.
The Japan Pro Boxing Association hosted a charity event for Hakamada at a Tokyo
gym in January, drawing nearly 1,300 people, according to organizers. Carter
spoke in a videotaped message, saying, "It's time to free Mr. Hakamada to show
the people that you are a civilized society and you can admit when a mistake has
been made."
But only four death row inmates have won acquittal on retrial since World War
II, the last in 1989. One waited 33 years and four months before being
exonerated in 1983.
Death penalty proponents, however, such as Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama, say
the system has enough checks and balances to ensure justice is administered
fairly.
Hakamada, now 72, has spent decades alone in a cell. His family says his mind
has sharply deteriorated, and he frequently makes no sense when he speaks. But
his family still clings to his past declarations of innocence.
"I will prove to you that your dad never killed anybody, and it is the police
who know it best and it is the judges who feel sorry," Hakamada wrote in a
letter to his son in 1983. "I will break this iron chain and return to you."
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