Japan's justice minister has asked a legal panel to review the country's retrial system after the acquittal of the world's longest-serving death row prisoner last year heightened scrutiny of a system often labeled the "Unopenable Door."
Keisuke Suzuki on Friday tasked the panel of legal experts with scrutinizing Japan's retrial process to recommend any necessary revisions, after it courted criticism for being too snail-paced to safeguard victims of wrongful convictions.
Momentum for a policy change has grown since a court last year quashed the wrongful conviction of 89-year-old Iwao Hakamata, whose case took 42 years to be reopened.
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