[imagesource: Hakamata Defense Lawyers via CNN]

In the 1960s, Iwao Hakamata was sentenced to death based on a pair of blood-stained trousers in a miso tank and an allegedly forced confession.

Now, more than five decades later, the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has had his name cleared.

On Thursday, a Japanese court acquitted 88-year-old Hakamata, who was mistakenly sentenced to death in 1968 for murdering a family, bringing an end to a protracted legal battle that has drawn global attention to Japan’s criminal justice system and fuelled calls to abolish the country’s death penalty.

According to NHK, Judge Kunii Tsuneishi of the Shizuoka District Court concluded that the blood-stained clothes used to convict Hakamata were planted years after the crimes occurred.

“The court cannot accept the fact that the blood stain would remain reddish if it had been soaked in miso for more than a year. The bloodstains were processed and hidden in the tank by the investigating authorities after a considerable period of time since the incident.”

“Mr. Hakamata cannot be considered the criminal.”

Hakamata, a former professional boxer, resigned in 1961 and took a job at a soybean processing company in Shizuoka, central Japan, a decision that would shape the rest of his life.

When Hakamata’s boss, his boss’s wife, and their two children were discovered stabbed to death in their house in June five years later, Hakamata, a divorcee who also worked at a pub, was the police’s top suspect.

After days of questioning, Hakamata initially admitted to the allegations, but subsequently altered his plea, claiming that police battered and threatened him into confessing.

Hakamata would go on to spend more than half his life waiting to be hanged.

New evidence in the form of DNA tests on blood however revealed no match to Hakamata or the victims, and the Shizuoka District Court ordered a retrial in 2014. Because of his age and fragile mental state, Hakamata was released as he awaited his day in court.

The Tokyo High Court initially scrapped the request for a retrial for unknown reasons, but in 2023 agreed to grant Hakamata a second chance on an order from Japan’s Supreme Court.

Hakamata’s 91-year-old sister said she “couldn’t stop crying and tears were overflowing” when she heard the verdict.

“When the judge said the defendant was not guilty, it sounded divine to me.”

Hideyo Ogawa, Hakamata’s lawyer, called the ruling “groundbreaking,” adding “58 years was too long.”

As groundbreaking as the verdict may be, it comes too late for Hakamata, whose mental health has declined in the decades he has been incarcerated. Today, he’s “living in his own world,” and seldom speaks or shows interest in other people.

“Sometimes he smiles happily, but that’s when he’s in his delusion. We have not even discussed the trial with Iwao because of his inability to recognize reality.”

Hakamata’s case has sparked concerns about Japan’s reliance on confessions to get a conviction, and some argue that it is one of the reasons the country should abolish the death penalty.

According to the Death Penalty Information Centre, Japan is the only G7 country outside of the United States that still uses the death penalty, albeit no executions were carried out in 2023.