The new chance for the man who has been sentenced to death for the longest time in the world

A Japanese man who spent nearly half a century on death row is being retried.

Iwao Hakamadanow 87, is the world’s longest-serving man on death row, according to Amnesty International.

He was convicted in 1968 of allegedly murdering his boss, his wife, and the couple’s two children a year earlier.

The former professional boxer confessed after 20 days of interrogation in which he said he was beaten. Later retracted the confession in court.

Human rights groups have criticized Japan’s justice system for relying on confessions, which they say the police usually coerce by force.

At the retrial, the judges will decide whether the DNA from the bloodstains found on the clothing allegedly worn by the killer matches Hakamada’s.

Meanwhile, the defendant’s lawyers claim that the evidence is fabricated.

The arrest

Hakamada was arrested and charged with robbing and murdering his boss and his family at a soybean processing plant in Shizuoka, west of Tokyo, in 1966.

The victims were found stabbed to death after a fire.

In 2014, Hakamada was released from prison and granted a new trial by a district court after discovering that investigators in his case may have fabricated evidence against him.

The decision was later overturned by the Tokyo Supreme Court.

But after an appeal, Supreme Court justices ordered the Supreme Court to reconsider the case, leading to a decision that a new trial should be held.

“I waited 57 years for this day and it has come,” says Hakamada’s sister, Hideko, 90, who has been campaigning on her brother’s behalf for years.

“Finally a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”

Iwao Hakamada’s family says his mental health has deteriorated after decades in prison.

Japan is the only industrialized democracy besides the US that still uses the death penalty.

Celebrate the new process

Amnesty International welcomed the new trial, saying it is a “long-awaited opportunity to do justice”.

“Hakamada’s conviction was based on a coerced ‘confession’ and there are serious doubts about the other evidence used against him,” said the group’s Japanese director, Hideaki Nakagawa.

However, the process for a new trial can take years if a special appeal is filed.

The defense welcomed the ruling, but called on prosecutors to “quickly start the new trial without making a special appeal to the Supreme Court.”

“We cannot afford any further delay in the recovery of Mr. Hakamada, who is 87 years old and has mental and physical problems after 47 years of physical restraint,” said Motoji Kobayashi, head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.