On March 27, a court in Japan suspended the death sentence and ordered the release and retrial of Iwao Hakamada, who had been imprisoned for 48 years, mostly on death row. The 78-year-old man is the world’s longest-serving death row inmate. Presiding judge Hiroaki Murayama said, “It is unbearably unjust to prolong detention of the defendant any further. The possibility of his innocence has become clear to a respectable degree.” Hakamada was convicted of the 1966 murder of the family for whom he was a live-in employee, but the court said new DNA evidence suggested investigators fabricated evidence. Clothing that investigators said the culprit was wearing did not fit Hakamada, and was stained with blood that did not match his DNA.

Hakamada is only the 6th Japanese death row inmate to receive a retrial since World War II.

(M. Yamaguchi, “Japan Frees World’s Longest-Held Death Row Inmate,” Associated Press, March 27, 2014. Photo: Reuters). See International, Innocence and Time on Death Row.