The chief lawyer for a former death row inmate who was freed in March after nearly 48 years in prison following a court decision to reopen his case said that Japan needs to abolish capital punishment.
Former boxer Iwao Hakamada was sentenced to death for the murder of four members of a family in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966, but was freed after the Shizuoka District Court approved DNA test results that showed the blood found on purported evidence was not Hakamada's.
The court also said there is a possibility that investigative authorities cooked up incriminating evidence. Hakamada is now 78.