Japanese man acquitted of murders after 45 years on death row | ABS-CBN News

A Japanese man said to have spent the world's longest time on death row was acquitted of murder on Thursday, ending his family's search for justice after a wrongful conviction for crimes committed nearly 60 years ago. The Shizuoka district court cleared Iwao Hakamada, 88, in a retrial of the murders of four people in the central Japanese region in 1966. Hakamada spent 45 years on death row before a court ordered his release and a retrial in 2014 amid doubts about the evidence that formed the basis for his conviction. The former boxer was accused of stabbing to death his former boss and family before burning down their home. Though he briefly admitted to the killings, he retracted the confession and pleaded innocent during his trial, but was nevertheless sentenced to death in 1968, a penalty upheld by Japan's Supreme Court in 1980. Norimichi Kumamoto, one of the three judges at the Shizuoka court who had sentenced Hakamada to death, petitioned the Supreme Court for a retrial in 2008, but the plea was rejected. Hakamada's lawyers had argued that DNA tests on bloodstained clothing said to be their client's showed the blood was not his. Since his release, Hakamada has lived with his older sister Hideko, who battled for decades to clear his name. "It was a false charge all along, no matter how many times they went to trial," said 72 year-old Kinzo Terao, who told Reuters he opposes the death penalty. Rights group Amnesty International hailed the exoneration as a "pivotal moment for justice" and urged Japan to scrap the death penalty. (Production: Tom Bateman, Irene Wang) For more ABS-CBN News videos, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmgUHWUpi2ioSp4xAP1SmAaf For more latest news and analysis from ABS-CBN News videos, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmg4pcvfM9a96rbUcLD_0P_U For more News Digital News Raw Cuts, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmi83yKJH8Dv0p_3D4cyZKzV Subscribe to the ABS-CBN News channel! - http://bit.ly/TheABSCBNNews Watch the full episodes of TV Patrol on iWantTFC: http://bit.ly/TVPatrol-iWantTFC Visit our website at http://news.abs-cbn.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abscbnNEWS Twitter: https://twitter.com/abscbnnews #Exclusive #LatestNews #ABSCBNNews