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An 88-year-old man who is the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been acquitted by a Japanese court, after it found that evidence used against him was fabricated.
Iwao Hakamada, who was on death row for almost half a century, was found guilty in 1968 of killing his boss, the man’s wife and their two teenage children.
He was recently granted a retrial amid suspicions that investigators may have planted evidence that led to his conviction for quadruple murder.
But wait, there’s more! Japan has a 99.9% conviction rate! He’s definitely not alone!
Yes, but:
“Scholars say the biggest reason for Japan’s very high conviction rate is the country’s low prosecution rate and the way Japan calculates its conviction rate is different from other countries.According to them, Japanese prosecutors only pursue cases that are likely to result in convictions, and not many others.
According to Professor Ryo Ogiso of Chuo University, prosecutors defer prosecution in 60% of the cases they receive, and conclude the remaining 30% or so of cases in summary trials. This summary trial is a trial procedure in which cases involving a fine of 1,000,000 yen or less are examined on the basis of documents submitted by the public prosecutor without a formal trial if there is no objection from the suspect.
Only about 8% of cases are actually prosecuted, and this low prosecution rate is the reason for Japan’s high conviction rate.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_justice_system_of_Japan
Uh huh. Did you read the part where they don’t have a presumption of innocence, like any actual justice system? Where you don’t have the right to the presence of a lawyer during interrogation, which can happen over 23 days at a time? Where they can do that multiple times?
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/25/japan-hostage-justice-system-violates-rights
I’ve seen it reported that if you count plea bargains as convictions, which is much closer to how Japan calculates conviction rate, that the US conviction rate is essentially the same as the Japanese one.