Video: Every day is like the last: an innocent Japanese man spent 46 years in a cell awaiting execution
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
This story has a positive outcome, but it took 46 years to wait for it! The Japanese athlete was unjustly convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. He spent 12 years in a remand prison, and then another 34 years on death row. It is terrifying to imagine what the convict was thinking about in anticipation of his fate, knowing that each new day could be the last.
More than half a century ago, Iwao Hakamada was a successful athlete in Japan, but his calm and measured life collapsed at one point when he was charged with the murder of the head of a noodle factory and his family. In 1967, when the tragedy struck, Iwao was working in this factory. In a vat of noodles, the police found clothes stained with blood. Iwao Khakamada was arrested.
In the course of the investigation of the case, a confession was “knocked out” of the suspect by torture. Iwao was oppressed morally and physically: he was not allowed to drink or eat, he was beaten, and interrogated for many days. In the end, the Japanese could not stand the bullying and wrote a frank confession.
At the trial, Khakamada retracted his testimony, claiming that it was made under duress, but the court did not take this into account. The found clothes also indicated an indirect innocence in the murder. After all, it was two sizes smaller than Iwao wore. Despite the lack of direct evidence, after two years of investigation, Khakamada was sentenced to capital punishment - death by hanging.
Iwao Hideko Hakamada's sister did not lose hope of her brother's release and forced lawyers to appeal against the verdict three times. 44 years after Iwao's detention, Hideko obtained a DNA test. The blood samples on the found clothes did not match the blood of the convict. The case was again sent for review, and only two years later, Iwao was released from prison.
While Hideko fought to free her brother, Iwao Hakamada was on death row. It is there that the criminals alone await the execution of the sentence. It is inconceivable to imagine what happened to Iwao when he realized that they were about to come for him and hang him. He has been waiting for this for 46 years.
On the day of liberation, a crowd of paparazzi gathered in front of the prison, because one of the Japanese television companies decided to make a film about the life of the unjustly convicted. When the 78-year-old man appeared on the porch, journalists vied with each other to ask what Iwao would like to eat now. In the end, one of the operators pulled the rest:. Then Iwao looked up and said:.
During the work on the documentary, the paparazzi went to one of the three judges Norimichi Kumamoto, who sentenced Iwao to capital punishment. Many years ago, he was the only one who tried to defend an unjustly convicted person, and in 2007 publicly declared that he was constantly under pressure. When the judge was told about Iwao's pardon, tears flowed from his eyes.
Iwao Khakamada himself hardly returned to normal life. It took inhuman efforts and patience of the sister for her brother to come out of the state of apathy and begin to smile.
Each country has its own idea of how to contain criminals. And if in Japan a convict is waiting for the execution of seven whole years in a solitary confinement cell, then in Norway, prisoners live in cells that resemble rooms in rest homes.
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