He’s finally been acquitted at the age of 88

Iwao Hakamada, a Japanese inmate who was accused of mass murder, has finally been declared innocent after spending 56 long years on death row for a crime he did not commit. At the age of 88, he is now a free man with a clean record.

Let’s rewind to 1966. Iwao was charged and convicted for the murder of his employer and his employer’s family, which included his wife and two children. During this time, Iwao was a professional boxer working at a miso processing plant. Tragedy struck when the family’s bodies were found in a house fire in Tokyo, Japan. An investigation revealed they had all been stabbed to death.

Despite Iwao’s consistent denials, he was sentenced to death after he confessed to the crime. He later revealed that his confession was coerced. For 48 years, he languished on death row, setting a record for the world’s longest-serving death row inmate.

via JAPAN POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

It took a painstaking 27 years for Tokyo’s top court to deny his first appeal for a retrial. His second retrial was initiated in 2008 by his sister, Hideko, who is now 91 years old.

In 2023, the court allowed a retrial, which started in October of the previous year.

A significant piece of evidence used against Iwao was that he supposedly wore blood-stained clothes during the crime and then hid them in a tank of fermented soybean paste. These clothes, discovered a year after his arrest and identified as his, were a key factor in his conviction.

However, advancements in DNA testing revealed that the blood samples on these clothes did not match Iwao’s DNA. Additionally, the trousers didn’t even fit him; he couldn’t put them on during the trial.

Since 2014, Iwao has been living at home while awaiting his retrial. A court deemed him a low escape risk due to his advanced age and frail health, allowing him to leave prison.

Incredibly, during his final hearing in May, there were still voices calling for the death penalty for Iwao, sparking debates about the justice system in Japan.

via Aflo/Shutterstock

Today, however, Iwao was finally declared innocent by the court, clearing him of the 1966 charges that placed him on death row. He is now a free man.

Hideko, who has spent a considerable part of her life proving her brother’s innocence, expressed her thoughts to reporters in Tokyo. “It is incredibly hard to secure a retrial. Not just Iwao, but there must be others who are wrongly accused and are suffering. I want the criminal law revised so that retrials are more easily accessible,” she said.