In 1966 four members of a family were murdered in Shizuoka Prefecture and pro boxer HAKAMADA Iwao was arrested. Hakamada had insisted on his innocence from the outset, but was sentenced to death. However, his support network has continued to protect him, and on March 27 this year, Shizuoka District Court suspended his death sentence and ordered his release. Freed after 48 years, Hakamada didn’t believe the news when he was notified and said, “It’s a lie.” During his long imprisonment, he lived in fear of being executed and it’s been reported that he displays signs of dementia and delusion. Said to have confessed, Hakamada endured the prosecution’s questioning for an average of 12 hours a day on consecutive days. The court did not accept 44 out of the 45 testimonies given as evidence as these had been obtained illegally. Furthermore, based on the opinion of a DNA expert, the court concluded that the five pieces of blood stained clothing, which had been considered to be key evidence, were not stained with Hakamada’s blood. This clothing should have been called into question from the beginning; it was suspicious that it had been found 14 months later, after the trial had already got underway. Now that the technology for DNA testing has improved, more than 140 death row inmates have been proven innocent in the USA. Making this judgment, the court severely reprimanded the prosecution: “It is reasonable to conclude that the evidence was fabricated after the fact.” With so many questions raised about guilty verdicts, people’s mistrust of the courts is deepening. It’s been pointed out that up until now, things were organized so that prosecutors and judges were in league with one another and this led to the creation of trumped up charges. A sentence is decided by the majority of judges involved, and one of the original judges issuing the death sentence, had insisted that Hakamada was innocent. However, his death sentence had been decided, and this judge has considered himself guilty of attempted murder. Now the crimes and humanity of those who fabricated evidence to turn innocent people into criminals in order to safeguard the power of the state, are called into question. (From May issue, 2014 / 2014年5月号より）