[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 4



JAPAN:

On Japan's secretive death row, inmate becomes cause celebre


Iwao Hakamada, Japan's longest serving death row inmate, has insisted for
40 years that he is innocent of the four murders he was convicted of. The
evidence was suspect, he says, and his confession was coerced.

Now the judge who wrote the ex-boxer's death sentence agrees.

"My feelings about Mr. Hakamada remain the same  I believe he is
innocent," said Norimichi Kumamoto, who now reveals that he argued for
acquittal but was outvoted by 2 other judges in their secret deliberations
before handing down their ruling in 1968. As the junior judge, he was
tasked with writing the death sentence order.

The case  and Kumamoto's stunning admission last year  has fixed an
unprecedented spotlight on Japan's secretive criminal justice system,
causing a stir in legal circles and raising questions about the death
penalty in a country where it's rarely questioned.

Among those clamoring for a retrial are Amnesty International, Japanese
boxers and Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the American boxer imprisoned nearly
20 years for 3 murders before the convictions were overturned.

The case also has illuminated all the elements that critics say make
Japanese law enforcement inhumane: heavy-handed interrogations without
lawyers present, over-reliance on confessions, an arbitrary capital
punishment system that can keep inmates on death row for decades and then
hang them with no advance notice.

Discussion of the case coincides with a rapid increase in the number of
death sentences. Of 165 people on death row, 7 have been executed so far
this year, compared with just 1 in 2005.

Hakamada's case began with a fire on June 30, 1966, at the home of an
executive of a soybean paste company where he worked.

Hakamada said he helped douse the flames, whereupon the charred remains of
the bodies of the executive, his wife and 2 children were discovered  all
stabbed to death.

2 months later, Hakamada, then 30, was arrested and charged based on a
confession and a pair of his pajamas that contained tiny amounts of blood
and gasoline. He recanted the confession and pleaded not guilty at his
trial. Prosecutors discarded the pajamas and presented a separate set of
blood-soaked clothes they said he wore for the killings.

Hakamada, his supporters and now the dissenting judge argue the case was
full of holes.

Hakamada says police kicked and clubbed him to get a confession. His
lawyers say he was interrogated for 264 hours over 23 days, the longest
session lasting 16 hours and 20 minutes. They say the exhausted Hakamada
was denied water or bathroom visits during the interrogation.

"Investigators spent some ten hours on average for about 20 days to get
his confession. They wouldn't have been doing something so stupid if they
had had firm evidence," Kumamoto, the judge, told The Associated Press.

But an appeal to the Tokyo High Court and the Supreme Court failed to
overturn the conviction.

The physical evidence also raises questions. When he tried on the pants
that replaced the pajamas at his appeal, they didn't fit him.

The murder weapon, a fruit knife with a 4.8-inch blade, should have been
more damaged if it had been used to inflict more than 40 stab wounds on
the victims, the skeptics argue.

"This is a typical case of finding an innocent man guilty of a false
charge because the court trusts confessions made during investigations,"
said Hideyo Ogawa, one of Hakamada's lawyers.

Under the Japanese system, judges don't disclose details of their
consultations, and Kumamoto, now 70 and in retirement, has faced harsh
criticism in legal circles for breaking the silence.

"I wanted someone in the Supreme Court to hear me just once at the end of
my life," Kumamoto said. "I'm glad I spoke up. I wish I had said it
earlier, and maybe something might have changed."

Hakamada's supporters hope the judge's reversal will turn the tide, though
not immediately; the Supreme Court has turned down a request for retrial,
though his lawyers have resubmitted the petition for further
consideration.

The Japan Pro Boxing Association hosted a charity event for Hakamada at a
Tokyo gym in January, drawing nearly 1,300 people, according to
organizers. Carter spoke in a videotaped message, saying, "It's time to
free Mr. Hakamada to show the people that you are a civilized society and
you can admit when a mistake has been made."

But only 4 death row inmates have won acquittal on retrial since World War
II, the last in 1989. One waited 33 years and 4 months before being
exonerated in 1983.

Death penalty proponents, however, such as Justice Minister Kunio
Hatoyama, say the system has enough checks and balances to ensure justice
is administered fairly.

Hakamada, now 72, has spent decades alone in a cell. His family says his
mind has sharply deteriorated, and he frequently makes no sense when he
speaks. But his family still clings to his past declarations of innocence.

"I will prove to you that your dad never killed anybody, and it is the
police who know it best and it is the judges who feel sorry," Hakamada
wrote in a letter to his son in 1983. "I will break this iron chain and
return to you."

(source: Associated Press)