Just Cases | Season 4 | Episode 2 | Guinness World Record for... Death row

1968 seems a lifetime ago. It was a defining year of the 20th century. 1968 is also the year that a Japanese professional boxer was sentenced to death for murder. Remarkably, he remains on death row to this day. The case of Iwao Hakamada has exposed questionable police practices, a forced confession and a bombshell claim from one of the judges who sentenced him.

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Transcript | Just Cases | Season 4 | Episode 2 | Guinness World Record for... Death row

[00:00:00] Professor Melissa Castan: 1968 is best known for being one of the most tumultuous years of the 20th century.

[00:00:14] James Pattison: Many in the West regard. 1968 as a year. That defined a generation. The war in Vietnam went up a notch with the Ted offensive. The Mexico Olympics were marred by controversy and a deadly crackdown on protestors. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated.

[00:00:31] Professor Melissa Castan: 1968 is also the year that a former professional boxer in Japan was sentenced to death. His death sentence would begin a saga that would seek him enter the Guinness Book of Records. For all the wrong reasons, I'm Melissa Castin.

[00:00:45] James Pattison: I'm James Patterson, and this is just cases.

[00:00:51] Professor Melissa Castan: Our guest today is Dr. Masato MAs, the director of Ilios Justice, an anti-death penalty initiative at Monash University. Hi, Mai. Hi Melissa. Hi, James

[00:01:01] James Pattison: Mai. We're gonna get to the incident that led to this man being sentenced to death shortly. Uh, first off, just a warning to our listeners that in this current case, we discussed some violent treatment of a prisoner.

[00:01:14] First off, my, let's meet this man, uh, in the 1960s prior to this particular incident. Who was Ial ha.

[00:01:23] Mai Sato: Yeah, sure. Ial Ada was a factory employee at this, uh, missile factory, but he was also, um, uh, a boxer as well. And I believe he was, uh, 30 years old. At the time of the offense,

[00:01:38] James Pattison: and he actually had a pretty good boxing record.

[00:01:39] I looked it up. Uh, it's, it's quite impressive. In fact, when he, when he lost, he lost only on points. But that has nothing to do with the story at all. Uh, so, so what happens on the night of June the 30th, 1966,

[00:01:51] Mai Sato: the manager of, um, miso producing factory, um, the manager and his wife and two children were murdered in their home and their house was robbed and then set a light.

[00:02:03] And then two months later, ADA, who was a factory employee there, and he lived near the missile factory too, um, was arrested for the

[00:02:11] Professor Melissa Castan: quadruple murder. So shortly after he's arrested, he confesses to the crime and the, and the case goes to trial. But at his trial, he retracted his confession. Why did that happen?

[00:02:24] Mai Sato: Well, he was interrogated without a lawyer for 20 days up to 16 hours a day, and he confessed to committing these murders. And towards the end of the 20 days he confessed. But at trial, uh, the prosecution presented 45 signed documents of confession, but only one was regarded as admissible by the court because there were signs of, um, forced confessions.

[00:02:52] Um, and torture and, um, yeah, a number of hours that he was interrogated without the presence of a lawyer.

[00:03:00] James Pattison: Some of the things that Mr. Hucker Mutter said, uh, at his trial about obtaining the confession was that police had, uh, beaten him. Uh, they kicked him. He was also quoted as saying later on, after the trial.

[00:03:12] Mm-hmm. He was quoted as saying, uh, I could do nothing but crouch down on the floor, trying to keep from defecating. One of the interrogators, put my thumb into an ink pad. Drew it to a written confession record and ordered me to write your name here while shouting at me, kicking me and wrenching my arm.

[00:03:29] Quite a distressing thing, uh, to hear. Um, so the original physical evidence was a pair of pajamas, which had some blood and petrol on it at a year after the crime in 1967. The police find something else. What, what's that?

[00:03:43] Mai Sato: He, um, they found, um, towards the end of trial, I think, um, found, um, five items of heavily bloodstained clothing discovered, um, from a missile barrel that was at the factory.

[00:03:57] And then by this point, prosecution changed their argument stating that, um, hakama actually wore the, the newly found clothes when murdering the family. Then their story up until that point was that Hamada, um, committed these crimes wearing his pajamas. So now that this new items of clothing had been discovered, prosecution changed the argument saying that haka killed the, uh, family with this, the, the missile stain clothing that that's just been found.

[00:04:27] And then went back to his apartment, got changed into PJ's, came back. And committed

[00:04:34] Professor Melissa Castan: arson on September 11th, 1968. He's found guilty and sentenced to death by a three judge panel, but what happens after that?

[00:04:43] Mai Sato: Well, he remained on death row and he actually still is technically on death row for 48 years. He was in solitary confinement.

[00:04:52] This,

[00:04:52] Professor Melissa Castan: this is just an incredible period of time for somebody to be on death row.

[00:04:57] Mai Sato: Yes. And on in Japanese death row, it's solitary confinement. So, um, he doesn't have access to, um, other death row inmates or other prisoners.

[00:05:07] James Pattison: Let's take it back a few steps 'cause we've got about 50 years to cover, uh, between when he's found.

[00:05:13] Guilty and sentenced to death. Mm-hmm. And now, uh, it's just an extraordinarily long period of time. Can, can you take us to that judgment, the original judgment, when he was sentenced to death by this three judge panel? What were the dynamics at play, uh, among those judges at the time? We've come to learn some things, uh, through a bit of a, a bombshell revelation Only recently.

[00:05:37] Mai Sato: Yeah. Yeah. So, um, one of the associate judges, so he, his name was Kuma Muto. He was the, the youngest, uh, judge out of the three. And he came out saying that when he sat on this trial, he knew. That HA was probably innocent, but he was convinced by the other two senior judges to deliver a guilty verdict. And he's quoted in the media saying that looking at the evidence, there was one was nothing but the confession and that it had been taken under intense.

[00:06:11] Um, interrogation and, um, this judge actually resigns six months after ha, kamala's, uh, conviction. And then I think it was in late 2000, uh, this judge stated on national TV that he was actually pressured into writing, uh, a guilty verdict.

[00:06:32] James Pattison: Was that something that is done commonly in Japan, or was this a. A break with tradition.

[00:06:40] Mai Sato: Um, yeah, it's very unusual that a judge or a former judge comes out, uh, confessing these politics within, within judges and I think he's, he's breaching the confidentiality of deliberation of judges. So hardly any judges will come out to do that.

[00:06:58] James Pattison: It must have been extraordinary at the time when that happened.

[00:07:01] Do, do you remember hearing that news and, and what the reaction was in Japan? Um.

[00:07:08] Mai Sato: That did come out and there was, I mean, this news was reported, but that didn't directly lead to, uh, the, the retrial being granted. I mean, in this, this case, the Japan Federation of Bar Association have been supporting this case for, for many, many years.

[00:07:25] So that revolution alone didn't have the, the desired impact. It's more that the, the lawyers have been working on this case. For decades, and finally, they managed to get access to the five items of clothing that were used back in the 1960s.

[00:07:42] Professor Melissa Castan: This is just cases Today we're speaking with Dr. Masato, the Director of Ilios Justice and the Death Penalty Initiative about the Japanese death row inmate Mr.

[00:07:50] Haka Mata.

[00:07:54] James Pattison: And while you're there, we have a massive favor to ask you. This favor will take between 30 and 45 seconds and we ask for your help. The Australian Podcast Awards are coming up in November, 2020, and voting is now open for the Listeners Choice Awards. And of course, we'd love for you to vote for just cases.

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[00:08:43] Ada, as you've mentioned, is sentenced to death in September, 1968, but I mean, there is a litany of appeals and appeals denied, uh, running all through the 1980s, 1990s into the two thousands. He remains on death row that whole time, and he is not executed. Why?

[00:09:04] Mai Sato: Um, in Japan, we don't really know who gets executed next.

[00:09:08] So a death row may could be on death row for five years and could be executed. Uh, there could be some, some prisoners who's got retrial documents submitted, but they may be executed. And in ADA's case, he just wasn't executed for this long. I mean, he still is alive. He, he, the Ministry of Justice decided not to execute him, and we don't know.

[00:09:31] What the selection process is, but my guess is that the Ministry of Justice probably knew that this is a wrongful conviction case and didn't want to have a wrongful execution.

[00:09:40] Professor Melissa Castan: In 2011, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized this prisoner as the world's longest held inmate on death row, and at that point he was 75 and had been on death row for 43 years.

[00:09:53] It is now nine years after that. What's been the impact on, on this prisoner, on Hama?

[00:10:01] Mai Sato: Um, sort of mental. Mental and psychological status has been, um, debated for a long time. For example, on death row for about 10 years, he refused to see his elder sister, who has been a very strong and committed supporter.

[00:10:18] He also refused to see the lawyers. If you've seen any clips of hakam now released, um, giving. Speeches, you could see that sometimes he doesn't even know where he is or what kind of speech he's supposed to be giving. The Japanese death row inmates are kept in solitary confinement. So of course, you know, being on death row for 48 years in solitary confinement has a tremendous impact on person's mental capacity and status and health.

[00:10:46] James Pattison: So is he still on death row?

[00:10:48] Mai Sato: He is still technically on death row. After in two, 2014, a retrial was granted because the lawyers managed to get some evidence that the newly found, uh, pieces of clothing, um, didn't have contain haka, mother's, um, DNA evidence. So a retrial was granted in 2014. And he was released from death row, but only released to be at his home.

[00:11:15] He technically remains a death row inmate. And then the prosecution appealed that decision to grant a retrial. And then 2018 High Court accepts that and then the lawyers appealed again, and now the Supreme Court is considering whether or not to grant Hakam a retrial.

[00:11:35] So, but the

[00:11:36] fact that he was released suggests that the judiciary thought that this is a wrongful conviction case, but we just can't call it a wrongful conviction case.

[00:11:46] James Pattison: So, so technically, where does death row exist for Mr. Haka Mata now? I mean, where is he living?

[00:11:52] Mai Sato: He is living with his elder sister at her home and, um, he's free to go out and give speeches, but technically the sort of like legal term for him is a death row inmate.

[00:12:05] Professor Melissa Castan: This season of just cases is asking the question, how does society organize itself and how our traditional institutions, including the legal system holding up in 2020, what does this terrible tale.

[00:12:18] Tell us about the justice system in Japan, and what do you think needs to change?

[00:12:23] Mai Sato: Um, I think the, um, the interrogation system, uh, procedural guarantees definitely needs to change because when, um, the retrial was originally granted back in 2014, the Japanese media congratulated by saying, great. Now. You know, we have, you know, uh, DNA evidence, we have science on our side.

[00:12:45] Therefore we can uncover, um, this kind of miscarriages of justice. But if you actually look more closely at ha Kamara's case, if the. Police and also the prosecution properly done their investigation, he would not have been charged in the first place. So I think the way in which investigations are done way in which, um, police interrogations are done, that really has to change.

[00:13:11] 'cause in Japan, you can be detained for up to 23 days without having a lawyer. And that 23 days is for just one charge. So that could be prolonged if you, if the, if the police decides to add another charge, uh, to the suspect, and that is a very, very long time to be questioned without access to a lawyer.

[00:13:35] Professor Melissa Castan: And the level of secrecy in, in the legal system and in the processes seems really challenging to me.

[00:13:42] Mai Sato: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one, this is, um, slightly different to sort of the process of the criminal justice system, but looking specifically just at their penalty in Japan, it's shrouded in secrecy, like the execution room hasn't been made public other than just one time in 2011 when an unused execution room was allowed to.

[00:14:04] Be photographed by, um, media crew and that's the only time that's ever been, um, allowed, uh, that's ever been made public. And, but also the Japanese government justifies the retention of the death penalty, um, by strong public support. But the public also dunno how the death penalty is used, um, how it's carried out.

[00:14:27] James Pattison: My, you head up Elios Justice, uh, an anti-death penalty initiative. How, how do you actually set the goal of turning the tide of, of public support, not just government policy, but public support for death penalty in countries that retain the death penalty such as Japan?

[00:14:46] Mai Sato: I think you can think of death penalty policy in two ways.

[00:14:49] One is sort of the bottom up of increasing human rights education, uh, working with. You know, NGOs in Japan, the civil society base is so weak. So you have a victims' rights group that is for the death penalty, um, uh, campaigning aggressively to us at the Japanese Ministry of Justice. But we have a very weak, um, civil society base with Japanese human rights organizations and NGOs, and I think it's important really to, to, to change that.

[00:15:17] Another way is. Um, the Japan Federation Bar Association is now officially an abolitionist organization, so we work with the JFBA to also try and advocate for abolition, um, at the, uh, ministry of Justice level. So, sort of bottom up, but also, you know, at the top level, you know, we also want to campaign and I think it's important that, um.

[00:15:39] We work at two levels when we think of advocacy, and that's sort of the same model that we have for S Justice. We partner with regional organizations, uh, and listening to them about what kind of campaigns and advocacy or cases that they'd like us to help out with. But we also have a un advocacy project looking at trying to.

[00:16:01] Um, engage with, uh, retention is as well as abolitionist or, um, governments in working towards moving away from the death penalty.

[00:16:10] James Pattison: And my LIOs. Who or what is LIOs?

[00:16:13] Mai Sato: LIOs is a, is an initiative, uh, at Monash Law faculty and we do teaching, research and advocacy. Um, we chose the name LIOs because, uh, it's a Greek goddess for, um, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.

[00:16:31] James Pattison: This is just cases, and today we are speaking with Dr. Mato, the director of Elios Justice, an anti-death penalty initiative at Monash University. And we're hearing today about the case of Japanese death Row inmate I aka mata. If you are looking to master your career, make sure you check out the new master's program from Monash Law.

[00:16:53] If you have a law degree already, you could be graduating with a master of laws within 12 months if you don't have a law degree. There's also a brand new master's designed for you too. It's called the Master of Legal Studies, both taught at Monash Law and both with the option to really drill down into a specific area of law and emerge with a comprehensive grounding to help you stand out from the pack.

[00:17:13] Applications are open now. Head to monash.edu/law for more info or check out the links in the show notes. We. Currently seeing the continued use of the death penalty worldwide. Can you tell us about the use of the death penalty? You know, what, what are the, where are the main places that it occurs currently and is it gaining popularity or is there a trend towards abolishing it?

[00:17:37] Where, where are we at?

[00:17:38] Mai Sato: Yeah. There's certainly, um, global trend of moving away from the death penalty. And more than half of the countries in the world, uh, world have abolished a death penalty. And if we include, um, those countries that, um, still have the death penalty in the law books, but don't actually carry out executions, that number goes up to two thirds of the country around the world.

[00:18:01] But Asia really lags behind the global trend towards abolition. Um, so when we think of the death penalty, we often think of the US because we hear more about the US death penalty. But in fact, 97% of executions occur outside of the US and Asia lags behind the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty.

[00:18:23] James Pattison: There's so much evidence that Mr. Hama was wrongfully convicted. Will this turn the tide of public support in Japan? We're all familiar with quite, uh, famous and celebrated cases in the United States where people work for years to establish that someone has been wrongfully convicted and they're on death row, and finally they're released to great celebration.

[00:18:44] Does it operate that same way around the world or is that a US phenomenon?

[00:18:50] Mai Sato: Um, I take the view that it's probably unique to the US because US has tried to make the death penalty a safe system by having, um, uh, procedural guarantees and appeal process, having a mandatory appeal process. But then. It was innocence.

[00:19:07] That argument was very persuasive in turning, uh, various, uh, US states from moving away from the death penalty and, you know, thanks to all these Innocence Project in the us. So I think us tried to create a safe death penalty system, but that. Uh, work and the trust that people probably had on the US death penalty system was broken because of all the exonerations.

[00:19:30] I'm not sure whether the same scenario applies in other jurisdictions in Japan. We still have very high trust in the courts, and if you look at the world value survey, you will see that for some reason Japanese public have very high trust. In the courts, and there has been other cases, four other cases of uh, death row, wrongful convictions, but those cases didn't quite change the, the people's attitudes towards the criminal justice system.

[00:19:59] But when we look at other countries like India, Kenya, Zimbabwe, we are seeing that. Again, innocence is not something that will, uh, change people's attitudes towards the death penalty. And in those jurisdictions, people actually do not trust the criminal justice system, do not trust the courts, and they think that, yeah, of course there's miscarriages of justice, so.

[00:20:21] Innocent people being executed or exonerated and support for the death penalty. There's not a match there. And in the case of Japan, I think the court still enjoys very high trust.

[00:20:33] Professor Melissa Castan: So my will this ordeal ever end for Mr. Ha? Is there a date for a rear trial? What, what's gonna happen next?

[00:20:41] Mai Sato: Well, there's no date for a retrial yet because we're still waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on whether there should be a retrial.

[00:20:47] And then after that there will be a date set for the retrial and then another appeal process. And given haka is already 82, I really hope that he will stay physically healthy and his mental, you know, health will also improve and that he will make it until he's um, found. Not guilty.

[00:21:07] Professor Melissa Castan: Dr. Masato, thanks for speaking to Just Cases.

[00:21:10] Thank you for having me.

[00:21:12] James Pattison: Dr. Masato is the director of LIOs Justice, an anti-death penalty initiative, which aims to abolish the death penalty in the Asian region. You can find more info by looking up. LIOs Justice, that's LIOs, E-L-E-O-S. And if you haven't voted yet, another reminder to put in your vote for just cases for the Listeners Choice Award For the Australian Podcast Awards 2020 Voting Closes on Wednesday the 18th of November.

[00:21:37] Just head to Australian podcast awards.com, floyd slash vote. That's australian podcast awards.com/vote. And make sure you click on that confirmation link that's sent to your inbox. And that's it for just cases for now. Thanks Mai, and thanks Melissa.

[00:21:51] Professor Melissa Castan: Thank you.

[00:21:52] James Pattison: Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time.