WireSeptember 26, 2024

TOKYO (AP) — A

MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press
Iwao Hakamada, left, 88-year-old former boxer who has been on death row for nearly six decades after his murder conviction that his lawyers said was based on forced confession and fabricated evidence, is helped by a supporter as he goes for a walk in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)
Iwao Hakamada, left, 88-year-old former boxer who has been on death row for nearly six decades after his murder conviction that his lawyers said was based on forced confession and fabricated evidence, is helped by a supporter as he goes for a walk in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hideko Hakamada, sister of 88-year-old former boxer Iwao Hakamada who has been on death row for nearly six decades after his murder conviction that his lawyers said was based on forced confession and fabricated evidence, speaks to journalists ahead of a retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder case, in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)
Hideko Hakamada, sister of 88-year-old former boxer Iwao Hakamada who has been on death row for nearly six decades after his murder conviction that his lawyers said was based on forced confession and fabricated evidence, speaks to journalists ahead of a retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder case, in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court ruled Thursday that an 88-year-old former boxer was not guilty in a retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder case, reversing an earlier wrongful conviction after decades on death row, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.

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Iwao Hakamada’s acquittal by the Shizuoka District Court makes him the fifth death-row convict to be found not guilty in a retrial in postwar Japanese criminal justice.

He was convicted of murder in the 1966 killing of a company manager and three of his family members, and setting a fire to their central Japan home. He was sentenced to death in 1968, but was not executed due to lengthy appeals and the retrial process.

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