Kanazawa,Ishikawa Pref., July 18 (Jiji Press)–A Japanese high court branch on Friday acquitted a 60-year-old man in a high-profile retrial concerning the 1986 murder of a 15-year-old junior high school girl in Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture.
The Nagoya High Court‘s branch in kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, delivered the acquittal for Shoshi Maekawa, who had previously been convicted and served a prison sentence.
Presiding Judge Keisuke Masuda stated that eyewitness testimonies, including those from maekawa’s acquaintances, which formed the basis of the original guilty verdict, “cannot be trusted because there is a possibility of investigative authorities having unfairly led witnesses to testify.”
This acquittal marks one of at least 21 cases since the end of World War II in Japan where individuals have been exonerated of murder charges in retrials.
Newly disclosed evidence from the prosecution was a critical factor in this latest ruling, and it is indeed expected to influence ongoing discussions regarding the retrial system, especially concerning rules for evidence disclosure.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
