Japan prosecutor apologizes to man acquitted of 1966 murders

Japan prosecutor apologizes to man acquitted of 1966 murders

Iwao Hakamata (R), 88, is pictured at his home in Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, on Nov. 27, 2024. Hideo Yamada, chief of the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutors Office, visited and apologized the same day to Hakamata, who was acquitted in a retrial in September over a 1966 quadruple murder case, after spending more than four decades on death row. (Pool photo)

  • Product Code
  • ILEA003651943
  • Registered date
  • 2024/11/27 00:00:00
  • Credit
  • Kyodo / Kyodo News Images
  • Media source
  • 2024 Kyodo News
  • Media size
  • 2806 × 3561 pixel
  • Resolution
  • 240 dpi
  • Deployment size
  • 926.70(KB)*
  • Special instruction

*File size when opened in Photoshop, etc.

Similar Images & Videos

    Man acquitted of 1966 murder case files damages suit

    SHIZUOKA, Japan, Oct. 9 Kyodo - Lawyers for Iwao Hakamata, a former death-row inmate acquitted in a 2024 retrial over a 1966 quadruple murder, head for the Shizuoka District Court in the central Japan city on Oct. 9, 2025, to file damages lawsuit against the state and Shizuoka Prefecture over fabricated evidence. The filing was performed by his lawyers as he has difficulty communicating due to post-incarceration syndrome. (Kyodo)

      Police, prosecutors apologize at grave of wrongfully accused man

      YOKOHAMA, Japan, Aug. 26 Kyodo - Takashi Koike, head of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office's public security bureau, Hiroshi Ichikawa, deputy chief prosecutor of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, and Tetsuro Kamata, deputy superintendent general of the Metropolitan Police Department, bow in apology to the bereaved family of Shizuo Aishima, a former adviser to machinery maker Ohkawara Kakohki Co., in Yokohama on Aug. 25, 2025, alongside Aishima's lawyer. Aishima was wrongfully accused of the unauthorized export of sensitive equipment in 2020 and died next year at age 72 without being granted bail. (Pool photo) (Kyodo)
        Japan prosecutor apologizes to man acquitted of 1966 murders

        Japan prosecutor apologizes to man acquitted of 1966 murders

        Hideo Yamada, chief of the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutors Office, bows in apology to Iwao Hakamata (2nd from R) and his sister Hideko (far R) during a visit to their home in Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, on Nov. 27, 2024. Iwao Hakamata, 88, was acquitted in a retrial in September over a 1966 quadruple murder case, after spending more than four decades on death row. (Pool photo)
          Japan prosecutor apologizes to man acquitted of 1966 murders

          Japan prosecutor apologizes to man acquitted of 1966 murders

          Hideko Hakamata speaks to the media after Hideo Yamada, chief of the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutors Office, apologized in person to her 88-year-old brother Iwao at their home in Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, on Nov. 27, 2024. Iwao Hakamata was acquitted in a retrial in September over a 1966 quadruple murder case, after spending more than four decades on death row. (Pool photo)
            Documentary film on Iwao Hakamata

            Documentary film on Iwao Hakamata

            Hideko Hakamata (L) appears on the stage of a movie house in Tokyo on Oct. 19, 2024, as a documentary film on her 88-year-old brother, Iwao Hakamata, is released the same day, depicting his life through the recent acquittal in a retrial over a 1966 quadruple murder case in Shizuoka Prefecture for which he had been sentenced to death. Standing by Hideko is Chiaki Kasai, who directed the film.
              CORRECTED: Retrial of man over 1966 quadruple murder

              CORRECTED: Retrial of man over 1966 quadruple murder

              Supporters of Iwao Hakamata, who was sentenced to death for a 1966 quadruple murder but released in 2014 under a district court ruling after 48 years in detention, hold a rally in Shizuoka, central Japan, on Sept. 26, 2024, ahead of the ruling in the former professional boxer's retrial at the Shizuoka District Court.

                [Breaking News]Japan court acquits man in 1966 murder retrial

                SHIZUOKA, Japan, Sept. 26 Kyodo - Hideko Hakamata smiles in Shizuoka, central Japan, on Sept. 26, 2024, after the Shizuoka District Court acquitted her brother Iwao in a retrial decades after the 88-year-old former professional boxer was sentenced to death over a 1966 quadruple murder case. (Kyodo)
                  CORRECTED: Retrial of man over 1966 quadruple murder

                  CORRECTED: Retrial of man over 1966 quadruple murder

                  Supporters of Iwao Hakamata, who was sentenced to death for a 1966 quadruple murder but released in 2014 under a district court ruling after 48 years in detention, hold a rally in Shizuoka, central Japan, on Sept. 26, 2024, ahead of the ruling in the former professional boxer's retrial at the Shizuoka District Court.
                    Ex-judge not allowed to see death row inmate

                    Ex-judge not allowed to see death row inmate

                    TOKYO, Japan - Norimichi Kumamoto, a former judge at the Shizuoka District Court, looks dejected outside the Tokyo Detention House on July 2 after he was denied permission to visit a man he had sentenced to death for the 1966 murder of a family of four even though he believes the man was innocent. Kumamoto, 69, who presided over the trial of Iwao Hakamada, 71, went public in March and said he convicted the man as he was unable to persuade the two other judges in the trial of the defendant's innocence.