In response to the approval of Iwao Hakamada's retrial = retrial in the so-called "Hakamada case", the defense team again requested the prosecution not to file a special appeal to the Supreme Court on the 16th.
Iwao Hakamada, 87, was sentenced to death for the murder of four members of his family in Shimizu Ward, Shizuoka City, 57 years ago in 1966, but pleaded his innocence and asked for a retrial of the trial, which was granted by the Tokyo High Court on March 4.
In response to the decision, the defense team submitted a new appeal to the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office on May 13 requesting that a special appeal not be filed.
The defense team then held a press conference to present a new view of the prosecution's argument.
At the High Court's hearing, the change in the color of blood stains on the "five pieces of clothing" that was decisive for the death sentence became a point of contention, and the prosecution argued that the experiment of soaking cloth with blood stains in miso for more than a year "showed redness in some parts, fully demonstrating the possibility that redness remained."
When the defense team asked a color expert to analyze the photographs of the cloth, they found that when soaked in miso for a long time, the blood stains lose their color, while the miso becomes more vivid.
The defense team believes that "the part that the prosecution claims was 'reddened' is not a blood stain but the color of the stain," and plans to submit the results of this analysis to the Supreme Court if the prosecution files a special appeal.
Hideyo Ogawa said, "I hope that Mr. Hakamada will be reassured by quickly concluding that he will not file a special appeal."