The Tokyo Detention House rejected a request Monday by a former judge to visit an inmate he sentenced to death nearly four decades ago even though he believed him innocent.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='Former judge Norimichi Kumamoto meets with reporters Monday outside the Tokyo Detention House in Katsushika Ward' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070703a3a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='357'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Former judge Norimichi Kumamoto meets with reporters Monday outside the Tokyo Detention House in Katsushika Ward. </B> KYODO PHOTO</FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>Norimichi Kumamoto, 69, publicly said in March that he thought Iwao Hakamada, 71, was not guilty when he and two other judges presided over his trial at the Shizuoka District Court in 1968, but he was unable to sway the other judges.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Hakamada was convicted of killing a family of four.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Kumamoto said he wanted to apologize to Hakamada if the visit had gone ahead and to confirm his health condition. Hakamada had reportedly told his family that he was ready to meet Kumamoto. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Kumamoto said he understood the reason for the rejection, saying such a meeting between judge and convict would have been controversial.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Until last month, only lawyers and family members were able to meet death-row inmates, but a legal revision has expanded the scope of visitors, prompting Kumamoto to file the request.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Hakamada, a former professional boxer, was found guilty of stabbing a soybean paste company executive and his family in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966 and killing them by setting fire to their house while robbing them of about 200,000 yen.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>After the death sentence was finalized by the Supreme Court in 1980, he has continued to seek a retrial.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Kumamoto was in charge of drafting the guilty verdict. He said he doubted the credibility of Hakamada's confession to investigators.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'I thought it was –

to hand down a guilty verdict on Hakamada, but I was unable to persuade the two other judges of his innocence," he told a news conference in March.

Kumamoto told a gathering of Hakamada's supporters Sunday that he still regrets the conviction.

Meanwhile, Toshiki Yamazaki, a senior member of a support group for Hakamada, was allowed to see the inmate Monday.

Yamazaki quoted Hakamada as saying he remembers Kumamoto and "he seemed to be a good man." Kumamoto shed tears at hearing the words.

Last week, Kumamoto submitted a petition with the Supreme Court calling for Hakamada's retrial.

He said he stepped down from the bench because he could not escape the feeling of guilt over the death sentence he handed Hakamada.

For related stories:
Ex-judge urges condemned man's retrial
Boxer sentenced in '68 to hang innocent: judge