89-year-old Japanese man gets record payment for 50 years in death row cell

A court in Japan has ordered the government to pay $1.44 million in compensation to 89-year-old Iwao Hakamata, who spent 47 years on death row before being acquitted, Kyodo reports.

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Jail

Hakamata worked at a miso paste factory when he was arrested in 1966, accused of robbing and murdering his employer, the employer's wife, and their two children. During interrogation, he confessed to the crime, but later told the court that his confession had been extracted under torture. Two years later, he was sentenced to death.

Hakamata was placed in a death row cell, awaiting execution, and repeatedly filed appeals. In 2014, the case was reopened for review. The court confirmed that Hakamata's DNA did not match the genetic material found in blood at the crime scene.

After the new evidence was deemed authentic, Hakamata was released. However, the Tokyo High Court ordered a retrial of his case. In fall 2024, the court fully acquitted him, ruling that three pieces of evidence had been falsified to frame him.

In 2011, Hakamata was listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving death row inmate awaiting execution. According to his lawyers, the compensation he was awarded is likely the highest ever paid in Japan.

Details

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Japan. The Penal Code of Japan and several laws list 14 capital crimes. In practice, though, it is applied only for aggravated murder. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and take place at one of the seven execution chambers located in major cities across the country. The only crime punishable by a mandatory death sentence is instigation of foreign aggression. Death sentences are usually passed in cases of multiple murders, although there have been some extremely grave cases where individuals who committed a single murder have been sentenced to death and executed, such as those involving torture, extreme brutality or kidnapping with a demand for ransom. Since 2000, 98 inmates have been executed in Japan, with the most recent being the execution of Tomohiro Katō, the perpetrator of the Akihabara massacre in 2008, who was executed on 26 July 2022. There are currently 107 death row inmates awaiting execution. Japan is one of four developed democracies worldwide to actively apply the death penalty.