Urgent call to action for the ‘Eastern Hurricane’ | Aubrey Harris

Law360 Canada (October 3, 2024, 2:56 PM EDT) --

Aubrey Harris

On Wed., Oct. 2, at the 10th annual Wrongful Conviction Day gala hosted by Innocence Canada, I had the great privilege to hear the acceptance speech by Harold Levy on receiving the Rubin “Hurricane” Carter Champion of Justice Award.

Levy spoke passionately about the late Hurricane Carter and highlighted the case of Iwao Hakamada, Japan’s, and possibly the world’s, longest-serving death row inmate. A fellow boxer, he was nicknamed the “Eastern Hurricane” by Carter himself.

Last month, news came that he had finally been acquitted of his original 1968 murder conviction. He had spent 45 years on Japan’s notoriously cruel death row, each day waking not knowing if it would be his last. In its acquittal decision, the Shizuoka District Court recognized that key pieces of evidence were fabricated by investigative authorities to gain a conviction.

While remaining under sentence of death, Hakamada was temporarily released from prison in March 2014, when the Shizuoka District Court granted him a retrial after new DNA evidence cast serious doubt on the reliability of his conviction.

However, prosecutors immediately appealed the decision. It took close to 10 years for the retrial decision to be affirmed, with the new trial only starting in October 2023. Nearly a year later, he was finally acquitted.

He has suffered for many years through this torture, and it is still possible that the Japanese government will appeal the acquittal decision on or before Oct. 10, throwing uncertainty back at 88-year-old Hakamada.

Amnesty International is calling urgently for people to sign a petition calling on the Japanese authorities to respect the acquittal decision and not seek an appeal. An English-language version of the petition is available here.

Please consider signing this before the end of this weekend.

Aubrey Harris is the co-ordinator in the Amnesty International Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty, Canadian Section (English-Speaking Branch). He can be reached at dpacoordinator@amnesty.ca.

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