89-year-old Japanese man awarded record $1.45 million for 47 years of wrongful death row imprisonment
89-year-old Japanese man Iwao Hakamada, who spent nearly half a century on death row before being acquitted, has been awarded $1.45 million in compensation — a record amount.
Hakamada, a former professional boxer, was imprisoned in 1966 while working at a miso factory. He was accused of murdering four people — the company’s senior executive, his wife, and their two children.
The victims were found with stab wounds among the ruins of their burned home in Shizuoka Prefecture. Investigators also discovered bloodstained clothes in a miso tank. The blood on five pieces of clothing matched the blood types of the victims and Hakamada himself.
In September 1968, Hakamada was sentenced to death. However, his family repeatedly appealed, seeking a retrial. In 2014, the case was reopened, and he was eventually released. Despite this, prosecutors opposed the decision, leading to years of legal battles.
Finally, in September 2024, the Shizuoka District Court acquitted Hakamada upon retrial, even though prosecutors had still demanded the death penalty.
The judge concluded that the evidence used against Hakamada, specifically the clothes found in the miso tank, showed “three instances of evidence fabrication.” The court highlighted that the bloodstains had not darkened despite being submerged in miso for over a year, suggesting that investigators had planted the blood “to ensure Hakamada’s conviction.”
Hakamada maintained his innocence throughout the trial, although he had initially confessed during interrogations. The judge noted that the confession was coerced under “inhumane” conditions.
Hakamada’s case marks the fifth time in post-war Japan that a retrial has resulted in an acquittal after a death sentence. Unlike previous cases, prosecutors in this instance continued to challenge the ruling.
The court awarded Hakamada compensation of 12,500 yen (approximately $83) for each day he spent in prison, the majority of which were on death row — totaling 217,362,500 yen or $1.45 million. According to Japanese media, this is a record for such compensation.
However, Hakamada’s legal team stated that no amount of money could compensate for the suffering he endured. Decades of imprisonment under the constant threat of execution severely impacted his mental health, with his lawyers describing him as “living in a world of fantasy.”
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