Japanese boxer on death row keeps up the good fight

Falsely imprisoned people always have my utmost sympathy if it is the case. The system will chew some up and spit them out without looking back.

Supporters say the clothes did not fit him and the bloodstains were too vivid given the time elapsed. DNA tests found no link between Hakamada, the clothes and the blood but the high court rejected the testing methods.

Just goes to show (again) that even supposedly intelligent folks are not too smart!

Supporters say nearly 50 years of detention, mostly in solitary confinement with the ever present threat of execution looming over him, have taken a heavy toll on Hakamada's mental health.

That’s a punishment worthy of a murderer. Killing him would have released him from his punishment. This is why I do not support the death penalty.

DNA tests found no link between Hakamada, the clothes and the blood but the high court rejected the testing methods.

Only in Japan would a high court reject DNA testing...

but probably accept blood type evidence.

Did he support the DP before this happened to him? If so, he has nothing to complain about as false convictions are a fact of the system.

made it to 82 under those conditions, I wonder 's what his longevity secret

Hakamada still looks very healthy even after 5 decades. Probably prison feeds them good balanced food and gives them good medicine but very small room. They say all death row prisoners must be healthy until hanging up.

DNA tests found no link between Hakamada, the clothes and the blood but the high court rejected the testing methods.

Only in Japan would a high court reject DNA testing...

but probably accept blood type evidence.

My guess is the legal system was more concerned about losing face than facing facts.

NA tests found no link between Hakamada, the clothes and the blood but the high court rejected the testing methods.

Only in Japan would a high court reject DNA testing...

but probably accept blood type evidence.

My guess is the legal system was more concerned about losing face than facing facts.

but probably accept blood type evidence.

Probably not either, they only accept the written word of a cop who beat the shite out of the defendant to get a confession.

THAT's more reliable than scientific facts!

The death sentence is the last resort of barbaric, revenge-seeking nations. How many innocents in japan and elsewhere have been murdered by the state on the back of state-sanctioned torture like Japan's police-forced confession interrogations? Better 1000 murders go free than a single innocent man be denied his liberty and precious single life. Disgraceful

Fifty years in solitary confinement is barbaric. Of course it would take toll on his mental health.

Wow 50 years just excite him and get it over with, not doing him any favors keeping him alive

*execute

but at his are exciting him may cause a heart attack, so.... two birds...

Inmost civilised countries, he would probably have been released after serving 50 years having served the sentence. In Japan they haven't even got round to it.

Heus obviously innocent, but they cannot face admitting the mistakes and corruption, but at the same time they won't hang an innocent man. So he stays in limbo.

The rest if Japan shrugs is shoulders - there are more important things to worry about, like some oishii food on television.

Japan, USA and India are the three "democracies" that still use capital punishment, not two as mentioned in your article.

DNA tests found no link between Hakamada, the clothes and the blood but the high court rejected the testing methods

Order another test done that the next court won't reject.

The Japanese police force's over-reliance on confessions, coupled with their ability to hold you for up to 23 days to grind you down enough to admit to anything, means that having the death penalty here is probably not the best idea.

That said, out of interest, how many of you here that decry Japan's use of the death penalty can say with absolute certainty that, if the (re)introduction of the death penalty was put to a referendum in your country in 2018, it would not be voted in by a simple majority? (Assuming 100% voter participation)