He spent 47 years on Japan’s death row – and got US$83 per day he was wrongly imprisoned
Former boxer Iwao Hakamada, 89, was exonerated of a 1966 quadruple murder. He received US$1.45 million for his wrongful detention
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World's longest-serving death row inmate in Japan awarded US$1.45 million compensation
The payout represents 12,500 yen (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It was a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said.
The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others.
The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in Japan, where gaining a retrial is notoriously hard and death row inmates are often informed of their impending death just a few hours before they are hanged.
The Shizuoka District Court, in a decision dated Monday, said that “the claimant shall be granted 217,362,500 yen (US$1.45 million),” a court spokesman said.