Japanese Court Acquits Longest-Serving Death Row Inmate of 1966 Quadruple Murder

TOKYO—A Japanese court found an 88-year-old former boxer not guilty on Thursday after a retrial for a 1966 quadruple murder, reversing a decision that made him the world’s longest-serving death row inmate. Iwao Hakamada’s acquittal by the Shizuoka District Court makes him the fifth death row inmate to be found not guilty in a retrial in postwar Japan, where prosecutors have a more than 99 percent conviction rate. The case could rekindle a debate around abolishing the death penalty in Japan. The court found that evidence was fabricated and planted by investigators and that Hakamada was not the culprit, his lawyer Hideyo Ogawa said....