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crime

Film reveals human side of exonerated death row inmate Hakamata

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By Risako Nakanishi

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Have the police who beat and tortured a false confession out of him had any action taken against them? Have the police who were responsible for such an incompetent investigation had any action taken against them? Have the police reopened the case to find the real murderer of that family?

Or are they trying to hide and hope it all goes away!

3 ( +5 / -2 )

With a nearly perfect conviction rate in Japan, surely there are many other innocent people in prison and even on Death Row, but I don't hear anything about systematically investigating the interrogations of these prisoners.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Japan needs its own "Innocence Project" initiative

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project

The Innocence Project's mission is "to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment."

The Innocence Project focuses exclusively on post-conviction appeals in which DNA evidence is available to be tested or retested. DNA testing is possible in 5–10% of criminal cases. Other members of the Innocence Network also help to exonerate those in whose cases DNA testing is not possible.

Some of the Innocence Project's successes have resulted in releasing people from death row. The successes of the project have fueled American opposition to the death penalty and have likely been a factor in the decision by some American states to institute moratoria on criminal executions.

The Innocence Project originated in New York City but accepts cases from other parts of the country. The majority of clients helped are of low socio-economic status and have used all possible legal options for justice.

All potential clients go through an extensive screening process to determine whether or not they are likely to be innocent. If they pass the process, the Innocence Project takes up their case, resources permitting. About 2,400 prisoners write to the Innocence Project annually, and at any given time the Innocence Project is evaluating 6,000 to 8,000 potential cases.

In almost half of the cases that the Innocence Project takes on, the clients' guilt is reconfirmed by DNA testing. Of all the cases taken on by the Innocence Project so far, about 43% of clients were proven innocent, 42% were confirmed guilty, and evidence was inconclusive and not probative in 15% of cases. In about 40% of all DNA exoneration cases, law enforcement officials identified the actual perpetrator based on the same DNA test results that led to an exoneration. Overall, the Innocence Project's DNA exonerations identified several contributors of wrongful convictions, including mistaken eyewitness identifications, invalid forensic science, false confessions, informants who lied, and government misconduct.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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