The Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court on Nov. 30 decided in favor of a retrial of a 46-year-old man who served out a seven-year prison term for murdering a 15-year-old junior high school girl in Fukui City in March 1986. No new, decisive evidence to cast doubt over the conviction ruling came out. But it is significant that the court reached the conclusion by carefully examining old evidence that was newly disclosed by the prosecution.

It must be noted that the new disclosure of the old evidence came only after the court made strong requests to the prosecution. The decision is likely to influence other trials dealing with retrial requests. In the 1986 case, no strong material evidence emerged. In September 1990, the Fukui District Court acquitted Mr. Shoji Maekawa, who was indicted. But in 1995, the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court found him guilty and in 1997, the Supreme Court finalized the ruling.

The police arrested him as late as March 1987. He denied his involvement throughout. The conviction was based on testimony by witnesses that they had seen him in clothes with blood stains and that they had heard him say that he had committed the crime.