Japanese police chief bows to wrongfully convicted man who spent 45 years on death row

Shizuoka Prefectural Police chief Takayoshi Tsuda bowed deeply before Iwao Hakamada, an 88-year-old former boxer, to apologize in-person for the decades of wrongful imprisonment he endured due to fabricated evidence and coerced confessions. However, many social media users questioned the bow, a traditional sign of respect and remorse in Japan, for the delay in justice and viewed the apology as too little and too late given the extent of Hakamada’s suffering.

What happened: Hakamada spent nearly 60 years fighting to prove his innocence after being sentenced to death in 1968 for the killing of an executive at a miso bean paste company and three of his family members in Hamamatsu in 1966. He was acquitted in a retrial last month by the Shizuoka District Court, which ruled that police and prosecutors had coerced his confession through violent interrogations. Hakamada’s case, which marked the longest time a person had spent on death row worldwide before acquittal, has sparked discussions on the need for more transparent investigations, easier access to retrials and debates over Japan’s death penalty.
Police chief’s visit: “We are sorry to have caused you unspeakable mental distress and burden for as long as 58 years from the time of the arrest until the acquittal was finalized,” Tsuda told Hakamada at his home, vowing to ensure proper investigations in the future. Hakamada, who struggles with conversation due to his years on death row, made a brief comment about authority, suggesting that those in power, like the police, should act with integrity and not misuse their authority. However, his 91-year-old sister accepted the apology to help him move on. “There is no use complaining to him after all these years. He was not involved in the case and he only came here as his duty. But I still accepted his visit just because I wanted (my brother) to have a clear break from his past as a death row inmate,” she told reporters.

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