Japanese man awarded record compensation for mistakenly spending 46 years on death row
An 89-year-old Japanese man who spent 46 years on death row due to a wrongful conviction has been awarded a record $1.4 million in compensation. This amounts to approximately $85 for each day of incarceration, informs CNN.
Iwao Hakamata is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the person who spent the longest time on death row in the world, awaiting the execution of the sentence. In the past, he was a professional boxer, and after finishing his sports career, he worked at a soybean processing plant.
In 1966, Hakamat was arrested on suspicion of murdering his employer, his wife and two children, who were found murdered in their own home. He was 30 years old then. He initially confessed to the crime, but later recanted his words, saying that the police forced the confession out of him with beatings and threats.
In 1968, the court sentenced Khakamata to death. One of the three judges opposed such a decision, but could not prevent the verdict and six months later resigned, depressed by his powerlessness to change the situation.
In 2014, Hakamata was exonerated thanks to new evidence — the results of a DNA test proved that the bloodstained clothes that police used as evidence had been planted long before the murder. Despite this, the trial continued until 2024, when Hakamata was finally acquitted.
The court has now ordered him to pay more than ¥217 million in restitution — about $1.4 million, or roughly $85 for each day he spends behind bars.
