Iwao Hakamada

Who is Iwao Hakamada?

Iwao Hakamada is a former Japanese professional boxer, who is officially the longest serving death row inmate. He was sentenced to death for a June 10, 1966 mass murder. However, he is also suspected to be falsely charged and has not been executed.

On August 18, 1966, Hakamada was arrested for killing four people. On September 11, 1968, the Shizuoka District Court sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court of Japan upheld his death sentence on November 19, 1980. However, it has been suggested that he was falsely charged. The physical evidence was changed from pyjamas to clothes and the clothes did not fit him. Although he remains on death row, he has not yet been executed. The Minister of Justice may refuse to sign a death warrant if they personally suspect that the conviction is not secure..

In 2007 Norimichi Kumamoto, one of the three judges that originally convicted Hakamada, came out in his support testifying that he had always believed his innocence, but had failed to persuade his two older colleagues at the time, resulting the split judgement being upheld. This revelation was in breach of a law against revealing the discussions between judges, but Kumamoto, who resigned from the bench in protest the year after Hakamada's trial, said he regretted not having come forward sooner. This expression of regret served in part to fulfil the promise of Hakamada to his son in 1983 in which he wrote, "I will prove to you that your dad never killed anybody, and it is the police who know it best and it is the judges who feel sorry. I will break this iron chain and return to you."