Longest-serving death row prisoner hails acquittal ‘victory’

TOKYO: The world´s longest-serving death row prisoner thanked his supporters for helping him achieve “complete victory” after a Japanese court last week overturned his decades-old murder conviction.

After a long fight for justice led by his sister, 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada was on Thursday declared innocent of the quadruple murder that he spent 46 years on death row for. “Finally I have won full and complete victory,” the former boxer told a group of supporters on Sunday in Shizuoka, the region southwest of Tokyo where the ruling was issued.

“I couldn´t wait any longer” to hear the not-guilty verdict, said a smiling Hakamada, sporting a green hat. “Thank you very much,” he added, accompanied by his 91-year-old sister Hideko at the meeting, which was shown on Japanese television.

Japan and the United States are the only major industrialised democracies to retain capital punishment, which has broad support among the Japanese public. Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan´s post-war history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations. Decades of detention -- mostly in solitary confinement with the threat of execution constantly looming over him -- have taken a toll on Hakamada´s mental health.