Tokyo –
A pair of blood-spattered trousers in a miso tank and an allegedly forced confession helped send Iwao Hakamata to death row more than five decades ago.
Now, the world’s longest-serving death row convict has a chance to clear his name.
A Japanese court on Thursday is set to hand down its verdict in the retrial of 88-year-old Hakamata, who was sentenced to death in 1968 for murdering a family in a marathon legal saga that’s brought global scrutiny to Japan’s criminal justice system and fueled calls to abolish the death penalty in the country.
During the retrial, Hakamata’s lawyers argued new information proved his innocence, while prosecutors claimed there was enough evidence to confirm he should be hanged for the crime.
Once a professional boxer, Hakamata retired in 1961 and got a job at a …