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Death of ’innocent man’ in Japan after 46 years on death row shines light on country’s flawed justice system
Twelve people have been executed since Shinzo Abe became PM in 2012. Picture: Yuya Shino/Reuters
Rohan Smithnews.com.au
THERE’S something going on in Japan and the government doesn’t want you to know about it.
Behind drawn curtains, where the press and public are forbidden, one of the world’s most advanced democracies is frozen in time, practising a tradition the rest of the world long ago left behind.
There, in a carpeted room, are two red squares. People call this place the “Tokyo death house” and “the secret theatre”.
Whatever the name, the result is the same: Prisoners are hanged in front of a large glass window separating the condemned from the captivated audience.
This is how Japan exacts justice, and the hanging is not even the most disturbing part of the process.
For years, often decades, inmates accused of murder or treason are kept in solitary confinement. They are tortured not only by the agonising wait to die but often to confessing to crimes they did not commit.
Last year a man named Iwao Hakamada was released after 45 years on death row. He is believed to have been convicted on falsified evidence.
Amnesty International staff in Japan told news.com.au that 93 out of 128 death row inmates are appealing for a retrial. None will likely be successful.
This week time ran out for a man who had been on death row for 46 years. Okunishi Masaru died at Hachioji Medical Prison on Sunday, aged 89.
He too had protested his innocence but had his requests for a retrial rejected on eight separate occasions.
His death has shone the spotlight on Japan, the only industrialised democracy other than the United States that continues to enforce capital punishment.
The US, for its part, is turning a corner. Public pressure there has forced states to reconsider their stance and, in some cases, abolish the death penalty altogether. The conversation hasn’t even started in Japan, and that’s exactly how they want it to stay.
Death of ’innocent man’ in Japan after 46 years on death row shines light on country’s flawed justice system
Twelve people have been executed since Shinzo Abe became PM in 2012. Picture: Yuya Shino/Reuters
Rohan Smithnews.com.au
THERE’S something going on in Japan and the government doesn’t want you to know about it.
Behind drawn curtains, where the press and public are forbidden, one of the world’s most advanced democracies is frozen in time, practising a tradition the rest of the world long ago left behind.
There, in a carpeted room, are two red squares. People call this place the “Tokyo death house” and “the secret theatre”.
Whatever the name, the result is the same: Prisoners are hanged in front of a large glass window separating the condemned from the captivated audience.
This is how Japan exacts justice, and the hanging is not even the most disturbing part of the process.
For years, often decades, inmates accused of murder or treason are kept in solitary confinement. They are tortured not only by the agonising wait to die but often to confessing to crimes they did not commit.
Last year a man named Iwao Hakamada was released after 45 years on death row. He is believed to have been convicted on falsified evidence.
Amnesty International staff in Japan told news.com.au that 93 out of 128 death row inmates are appealing for a retrial. None will likely be successful.
This week time ran out for a man who had been on death row for 46 years. Okunishi Masaru died at Hachioji Medical Prison on Sunday, aged 89.
He too had protested his innocence but had his requests for a retrial rejected on eight separate occasions.
His death has shone the spotlight on Japan, the only industrialised democracy other than the United States that continues to enforce capital punishment.
The US, for its part, is turning a corner. Public pressure there has forced states to reconsider their stance and, in some cases, abolish the death penalty altogether. The conversation hasn’t even started in Japan, and that’s exactly how they want it to stay.
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