Tag - iwao-hakamata

 
 

IWAO HAKAMATA

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks during a news conference at the Justice Ministry in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 7, 2025
Japan's retrial system to be reviewed after landmark acquittal
The system — so time-consuming that campaigners call it the "door that never opens" — has not been changed since 1949.
Hideko Hakamata (second from left), Iwao Hakamata's sister, in the city of Shizuoka on Sept. 26 following a Shizuoka District Court retrial verdict finding Iwao Hakamata not guilty
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 30, 2025
Hakamata seeks ¥217 million in state compensation after acquittal
Under the criminal compensation law, those found not guilty in a retrial can claim compensation of up to ¥12,500 per day.
Iwao Hakamata (left) speaks to his supporters along with his sister Hideko in the city of Shizuoka on Sept. 29 after he was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2024
Top prosecutors office finds investigation of Hakamata insufficient
Iwao Hakamata was acquitted this year in his retrial for the murder of four people in 1966.
Hideko Hakamata (second from left), Iwao Hakamata's sister, in the city of Shizuoka on Sept. 26 following a Shizuoka District Court retrial verdict finding Iwao not guilty
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 23, 2024
Momentum builds for reforming Japan's retrial system
Prolonged proceedings for retrial pleas are common in Japan.
Iwao Hakamata (right) and his sister Hideko attend a news conference on Nov. 29
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2024
Sister of ex-death row inmate Iwao Hakamata wins human rights award
The Tokyo Bar Association said it recognized Hideko Hakamata's decadeslong efforts to save her brother and her work to eradicate wrongful convictions.
Hideo Yamada (left), head of the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutor's Office, apologizes to former death row inmate Iwao Hakamata (second from right) at his home in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2024
Shizuoka prosecutor apologizes to Hakamata following his acquittal
The Shizuoka District Court acquitted Iwao Hakamata last September, ruling that investigating authorities had fabricated evidence in the 1966 murder case.
Iwao Hakamata at his home in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, in October. The former boxer was acquitted of a 1966 quadruple murder in September after a retrial.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 21, 2024
Chief prosecutor in central Japan to apologize in person to Iwao Hakamata
The head of the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutor's Office is expected to meet the former boxer recently acquitted of a quadruple murder over his lengthy legal battle.
Shizuoka Prefectural Police Chief Takayoshi Tsuda bows to Iwao Hakamata (second from right), recently exonerated over a 1966 murder, and others on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 21, 2024
Shizuoka police chief apologizes to Iwao Hakamata after his acquittal
Takayoshi Tsuda visited the home of Hakamata, 88, in the city of Hamamatsu, bowing deeply for about two minutes.
Iwao Hakamata (left) gestures beside his older sister, Hideko, at a gathering with supporters on Monday in the city of Shizuoka, his first public appearance since his exoneration over a 1966 murder case.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 15, 2024
Ex-boxer Hakamata set to vote for the first time in decades
Efforts are being made to allow the world's longest-held death row inmate, who has been exonerated over a 1966 murder case, to vote in the Oct. 27 general election.
Iwao Hakamata (center) makes his first public appearance on Monday in the city of Shizuoka after achieving a complete acquittal.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 14, 2024
Hakamata makes first public appearance since acquittal
He received flowers from his supporters and a boxing champion's belt.
Hideko Hakamata (left), the older sister of ex-boxer Iwao Hakamata, and Hideyo Ogawa, an attorney on his defense team, speak at a news conference on Tuesday in the city of Shizuoka, following prosecutors' decision not to file an appeal against the Shizuoka District Court's not-guilty verdict in a retrial of a 1966 murder case against Iwao Hakamata.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 9, 2024
Japan’s ‘hostage justice’ system breeds false convictions, groups say
False convictions will continue to occur unless the system of extracting confessions through prolonged, harsh interrogations is eliminated, human rights groups say.
Iwao Hakamata, together with his sister Hideko, speaks to his supporters on Sept. 29 in the city of Shizuoka after the Shizuoka District Court handed down a not-guilty verdict in a retrial of a 1966 quadruple murder case against him.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 8, 2024
Ex-boxer Iwao Hakamata finally exonerated over 1966 murder case
Prosecutors have decided not to appeal against the Shizuoka District Court's not-guilty verdict at the end of a rare retrial, his lawyers said.
Japan's new justice minister Hideki Makihara says abolishing the death penalty would be "inappropriate."
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 3, 2024
New justice minister says scrapping death penalty 'inappropriate'
Capital punishment has strong public support in Japan, where scrapping it is rarely discussed.
Hideko Hakamata (center) and lawyers representing her younger brother, Iwao Hakamata, pose with a banner that reads "Iwao Hakamata verdict not guilty" as they leave the Shizuoka District Court on Thursday after the ruling was delivered.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 26, 2024
In rare retrial, Shizuoka court rules ex-boxer not guilty of 1966 murders
Iwao Hakamata, the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, has maintained his innocence for decades.
Iwao Hakamata in March 2023 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. Hakamata was convicted in 1968 over the fatal stabbings of a couple and their children two years earlier. He has pleaded his innocence throughout his trial, maintaining that his confession was coerced.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024
In Japan, the road to exoneration takes decades
Defense lawyers’ extremely limited access to evidence and prosecutors’ right to appeal a court order for a retrial result in a long, drawn-out process.
Iwao Hakamata's older sister Hideko (left) marches to the Shizuoka District Court in the city of Shizuoka on Wednesday for a retrial of her younger brother Iwao, who had been on death row over a 1966 murder case.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 22, 2024
Trial ruling date for man accused of 1966 murder set for September
Iwao Hakamata, who in a rare example is being retried over a 1966 murder case, will be given a verdict on Sept. 26.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 10, 2023
Shizuoka prosecutors to push for guilty verdict in Hakamata retrial
Prosecutors have said they plan to argue that the March retrial decision by the Tokyo High Court was “groundless.”
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Mar 24, 2023
Iwao Hakamata: The former pro-boxer fighting for exoneration, with help from his sister
The day of his arrest forever changed the course of Hakamata's life, but it was also the beginning of a long, drawn out fight for exoneration.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 20, 2023
Tokyo prosecutors decide not to appeal Iwao Hakamata retrial decision
The case will now be sent to the Shizuoka District Court, with a high possibility that Hakamata will be exonerated over murders in 1966.

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