Entries tagged with “Iwao Hakamada”
Apr 02, 2025
Japanese Exoneree Awarded $1.4 Million in Compensation After Spending 46 Years on Death Row
On March 24, 2025, Iwao Hakamada was awarded just over $217 million yen ($1.4 million) in compensation after spending 46 years wrongfully incarcerated on Japan’s death row. According to Mr. Hakamada’s legal representative, Hideyo Ogawa, this award marks the “highest” compensation ever provided for a wrongful conviction. Mr. Hakamada, who was exonerated last year, is only the fifth death-sentenced prisoner to receive a retrial in post-World War II Japan, all of which have resulted in…
Oct 01, 2024
Citing Misconduct, Japanese Court Formally Exonerates Iwao Hakamada of 1966 Murder After 46 Years on Death Row
On September 26, 2024, a Japanese court formally acquitted 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada (pictured), who was wrongfully sentenced to death in 1968 for the murder of his former boss and family in Shizuoka, Japan. After 46 years on death row, and another decade of litigation, Judge Kunii Tsuneishi of the Shizuoka District Court ruled that blood-stained clothing used to convict Mr. Hakamada was fabricated long after the murders. “The court cannot accept the fact that the blood stain would remain…
Issues
Time on Death Row
,Mar 20, 2023
INTERNATIONAL: Longest Serving Death Row Prisoner in the World Has Case Reversed
On March 13, 2023 in Japan, Tokyo’s High Court granted a retrial for Iwao Hakamada, a former boxer known as the “longest serving death row” prisoner in the world. He was convicted of murder in 1968. Hideaki Nakagawa, Director of Amnesty International Japan, described the ruling as a “long-overdue chance to deliver some justice to Hakamada.” Although Hakamada had initially denied the charges brought against him, he claimed he later confessed to the police after being subjected to brutal…