Comment on the Finalization of the Judgment of Acquittal in the Retrial of the Hakamada Case
Today, the public prosecutor in the retrial of the Hakamada case chose to waive an appeal against the acquittal judgment handed down by the Shizuoka District Court on September 26, 2024, thereby making the judgment final and binding.
Today came after 58 years and 2 months since Mr. Iwao Hakamada was arrested in August 1966 and 43 years and 10 months since his death sentence was finalized in December 1980. It took such a long time for Mr. Hakamada to win the decision to open a retrial and the acquittal judgment in the retrial.
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (the “JFBA”) is overjoyed by the public prosecutor’s decision, which made Mr. Hakamada a truly free man. With the decision, a decades-long effort towards exoneration by Mr. Hakamada, Ms. Hideko Hakamada, his older sister, the defense counsel for the case, and support from many people has finally come to fruition. We sincerely hope Mr. Hakamada will recover mentally and physically and lead a peaceful life like any human being.
The government must take the process and result of the retrial in the Hakamada case seriously and sincerely apologize to Mr. Hakamada. They must also review the cause of the miscarriage of justice in the case, as well as the prolonged period of time taken until the judgment of acquittal was finalized in its retrial, and take measures to rectify the issues.
In her comment on the judgment released yesterday, the Prosecutor General expresses the intention to conduct a necessary review on related matters including why the retrial request proceedings took such a prolonged time in the Hakamada case. The Public Prosecutors Office must sincerely recognize the gravity of the acknowledgement by the court that investigative authorities subjected Mr Hakamada to inhumane interrogations and fabricated evidentiary items used to convict Mr. Hakamada. The occurrence of miscarriages of justice similar to that in the Hakamada case cannot be prevented if the Office does not fulfill its accountability through its review for why the miscarriage of justice happened in the Hakamada case and who is responsible. Moreover, the government must work on fundamental reforms, including amending the related legislation, rather than simply changing the operation of the criminal judicial system.
In particular, the government should immediately commence detailed examinations toward the amendment of Part IV of the Code of Criminal Procedure to correct flaws in the legislation, which were once again highlighted in the Hakamada case.
The JFBA will continue to make our utmost efforts to reform the country’s criminal judicial system so that tragedies like the Hakamada case will never happen again, and support many other victims who have suffered miscarriages of justice and rescue them as soon as possible. Furthermore, we will also continue to do our best to achieve the amendment of Part IV of the Code of Criminal Procedure, including abolishing the death penalty system and legislating to ensure the disclosure of evidence in retrial request proceedings and prohibiting prosecution appeals against a court’s ruling to commence a retrial and establishing procedures for retrial request proceedings and adding provisions setting forth such procedures.
October 9, 2024
Reiko Fuchigami
President, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations
