Thread: World’s longest-serving death row prisoner awarded $1.4 million after acquittal

A Japanese man who spent more than 40 years on death row until he was acquitted last year has been awarded $1.4 million in compensation, a court said on Tuesday – roughly $85 for each day he was wrongfully convicted.
Former professional boxer Iwao Hakamata, 89, was sentenced to death in 1968 for a quadruple murder despite repeatedly alleging that the police had fabricated evidence against him.
Once the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, he was acquitted after a DNA test showed that the bloodstained clothing which was used to convict him was planted long after the murders, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
The Shizuoka District Court confirmed to CNN that Hakamata had been awarded more than 217 million yen – a payout that represents about US$85 per day since he was found guilty.
His legal representative Hideyo Ogawa described the compensation as the “highest amount” ever handed out for a wrongful conviction in Japan, but said it could never make up for what Hakamata had suffered.
“I think the state (government) has made a mistake that cannot be atoned for with 200 million yen,” the lawyer said, according to NHK.
Hakamata retired as a professional boxer in 1961 and got a job at a soybean processing plant in Shizuoka, central Japan.
Five years later he was arrested by police after his boss, his boss’ wife and their two children were found stabbed to death in their home.
Hakamata initially admitted to the charges against him, but later changed his plea, accusing police of forcing him to confess by beating and threatening him.

Iwao Hakamada: World’s longest-serving death row prisoner awarded $1.4 million after acquittal – that’s $85 for each day | CNN