Sister's long fight ends as Japan frees longest-serving death row inmate

In Hamamatsu Japan‚ Hideko Hakamada 91‚ has spent most of her life trying to free her brother from death row. Now that hes been cleared‚ she feels theyre starting a new part of their lives together.

Hideko stood by her brother‚ Iwao Hakamada (who was the worlds longest-serving death row inmate) through many years of hard legal fights as his mental state got worse. She said “No matter what people said about me I lived my own life and appreciated my freedom. I did not belittle myself as the sister of a death row inmate; I lived without shame“

While working as an accountant Hideko helped pay for her brothers legal costs made long trips to Tokyo to see him on death row and tried to change public opinion in his favor. It wasnt easy and sometimes she felt helpless. She said “I was desperately working to win him a retrial because that was the only way to save his life“. But at times she felt “at a loss and even unsure who I should be fighting against... It was like I was fighting against an invisible power“

To keep a sense of herself outside of her brothers legal fight she invested her savings and took out loans to have a building made. She now rents out apartments in the building where the siblings live.

Iwao Hakamada a former boxer was cleared in 09/2024 by the Shizuoka District Court. The court said police and prosecutors had worked together to make up and plant evidence against him and forced him to confess with violent hours-long closed interrogations.

Earlier in the week he got his voting ticket for 10/27/2024 parliamentary elections in the mail. This showed his civil rights are being given back. Though he was freed from his solitary death row cell after a 2014 court order for a retrial his conviction wasnt cleared and his rights werent fully restored until the recent decision.

Hideko Hakamada said shes “filled with happiness“ about the acquittal and that being able to vote “means he has finally been allowed back into society“

Iwao was found guilty of murder in the 1966 killing of an executive at a miso bean paste company and three of his family members in Hamamatsu. He was given the death sentence in a 1968 district court ruling but wasnt executed because of the long appeal and retrial process in Japans complex criminal justice system.

It took 27 years for the Supreme Court to say no to his first appeal for a retrial. His second appeal for a retrial was filed in 2008 by his sister and that request was granted in 2014.

Hideko Hakamada said her brothers training as a professional boxer helped him survive. She always trusted her brother who was the closest to her among their six siblings.

I am innocent

Executions are done in secret in Japan and prisoners dont know their fate until the morning theyre hanged. In 2007 Japan started telling the names of those executed and some details of their crimes but they still dont share much. Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of Seven advanced nations that have capital punishment.

Hideko Hakamada wants that changed based on what she learned from her brothers case which has made people criticize how prosecutors act.

She rarely complained about her ordeal or the harsh public comments she faced or her fear that her brother would be executed even though she believed he was wrongly accused. People have praised her for her positive attitude and strength. But she says “It is Iwao who deserves praise for surviving for walking out of confinement after more than 50 years“

“Im 91 but age has nothing on me. People say ordinary 91-year-olds live more quietly but thats not what Im doing. I want to do everything I can while Im still in good health“ she said

“Im not done yet“ she said with a laugh. “This is the beginning“