save Hakamada Iwao

Tully 18-Sep-2009

Hakamada Iwao has spent the last 41 years on death row. Aged 73, he is one of Japan's oldest and longest serving death row inmates.

Hakamada Iwao appears to have been sentenced to death principally on the basis of a confession extracted under duress. He retracted his confession at trial, stating that he had been beaten and forced to sign after 20 days of intensive interrogation. One of the three judges presiding over his case has publicly stated that he believes Hakamada to be innocent but so far appeals for a retrial have been unsuccessful.

Like other death row inmates in Japan, Hakamada Iwao lives in virtual isolation, not knowing from one day to the next when he will be executed.

Take Action
Sign your name to petition the Japanese Justice Minister, Eisuke Mori, to:

ensure that Hakamada Iwao is not executed
grant Hakamada Iwao a retrial which meets international fair trial standards;
release him while he awaits a retrial, taking into account his advanced age and mental illness;
introduce a moratorium on executions, and that the sentences of all those now on death row are commuted.
"I could not convince the other two judges that Hakamada was not guilty so I had to convict him as the decision was made by majority - I pray for his exoneration every day." Norimichi Kumamoto, one of three judges who presided over the trial of Hakamada Iwao, speaking out in 2007.

Read
Hanging by a thread: Mental health and the death penalty in Japan

Executions and death sentences around the world in 2008

Hakamada Iwao’s story
Hakamada Iwao is suffering from mental illness after spending over 28 years in solitary confinement and lives with the constant fear of execution.

Hakamada Iwao has been on death row since 1968. After an unfair trial, he was convicted of the 1966 murder of the boss of the factory where he worked, and the man's wife and two children. The family had been stabbed and their house set on fire.

Hakamada Iwao confessed after 20 days of interrogation by police without a lawyer present. Under the daiyo kangoku (substitute prison) system, suspects can be detained for up to 23 days of questioning. There is no limit on the length of interrogation sessions, during which the detainees' lawyers have only restricted access to them. Hakamada Iwao retracted his confession and testified during his trial that police had beaten and threatened him to force him to sign a confession, but he was found guilty and sentenced to death. He has appealed twice without success, and his petitions for a retrial were rejected three times, most recently in March 2008. His lawyers submitted a further appeal the following month.

Kumamoto Norimichi, one of the trial judges, stated publicly in 2007 that he had always believed Hakamada was innocent, but that the two other judges at the trial had outvoted him.

Hakamada Iwao appears to have been sentenced to death principally on the basis of a confession extracted under duress. According to his lawyer, the only evidence used against him was flawed.

Death Penalty in Japan
During 2008, Japan carried out a total of 15 executions (the highest known number since 1975) and sentenced at least another 27 people to death. There are estimated to be approximately 100 people on death row.

Death row inmates continued to be confined to single cells, day and night, are banned from talking to other prisoners and they are not allowed to watch television or engage in personal interests or hobbies.

The prison authorities reportedly carry out executions by hanging, usually in secret. Death row inmates are only notified on the morning of their execution, and their families are typically informed only after the execution has taken place. Hakamada Iwao is at constant risk of being executed at any time, unless he is pardoned by the Minister of Justice, or granted a retrial.

Japan voted against both the 2007 and 2008 United National General Assembly resolutions calling for a moratorium with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

Japan and the US are the two major industrialised nations still practicing the death penalty.