IT IS ALWAYS A GOOD TIME TO QUESTION THE MORALITY AND THE LEGITIMACY OF THE DEATH PENALTY

During a layover on a flight from Beijing to the US, I found myself at the ANA hotel in Narita, Japan when the Japanese government announced that Iwao Hakamada had been exonerated for a murder that he had been that he had been convicted of and had served 46 years on death row. In Japan convicted people who have been sentenced to death are placed in solitary confinement, while their case is under appeal. The only people allowed to visit them are relatives and their lawyers. When appeals have been exhausted and a time for execution has been set, the inmate is given a one-hour warning before being marched to the death chamber.

Mr. Hakamada was sentenced to death on September 11, 1968. He holds the Guiness World Record for the longest amount of time spent on death row. Mr. Hakamada was accused of killing the owner of the miso processing plant he worked in, along with the owner's wife and child. the police said that the motive was robbery. He was held for days by the Tokyo police, until he confessed. At his trial some bloody work clothes were found in soy sauce vat near Mr. Hakamada's locker at the factory. He was also beaten during his days of interrogation. He lost his appeals to the Tokyo High Court and to the Japanese Supreme Court, The only thing that prevented his execution was the fact that the then Minister of Justice had some reservations about the evidence that the prosecutor presented at trial. Mr., Hakamada wrote a letter to his son in 1968 in which he said, " I have never killed anyone, and I will never give up. I will break this chain and return to you".

Over the years evidence was reexamined over and over again. It turns out that the blood on the clothing found in the plant did not match Mr. Hakamada's , Additionally the prosecutor could not explain the fact that the blood stains were bright red, despite have been sitting in a vat of soy sauce before being "discovered".

Mr. Hakamda had once been a professional boxer. His record was 16 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw. He often said, " When you give up, you have already lost". I am glad he won his last fight. He will live with his 91 one-year sister, Hideko, (pictured above) who was the moving force behind the fight to keep him alive.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S, there appears to be an uptick in putting people to death, even where there are serious doubts about the guilt of the defendant. One of the scheduled executions in Oklahoma is on the calendar, despite the fact the state's Attorney General has some doubts about the guilt of the convict. Japan and the United States are the only two democracies where the death penalty still exist. Japan has a new Justice Minister, Hideki Makihara, who just announced, " This would be an inopportune time to decide whether Japan should end the DEATH PENALTY. Mr. Minister, WHAT WOULD BE AN OPPORTUNE TIME?

THE NEW YORK TMES

Opinion

China's Death Penalty

June 24, 2001

See the article in its original context from June 24, 2001, Section 4, Page 12Buy Reprints

To the Editor:

Re ''China Justice: Swift Passage to Execution'' (front page, June 19): The move toward private enterprise and greater freedoms has created great changes in China's legal system, but it still mirrors the Chinese desire for social order.

Someone accused of a crime is viewed as having offended the society as a whole. This may help explain the execution of Hao Fengin, who illegally sold explosives that were used to kill 108 people. Ms. Hao did not intend to murder anyone, but she was viewed as a necessary element in the commission of the murders and was judged by the result.

If the use of capital punishment in China looks to us as if it is applied unevenly -- with some people executed for corruption while others seem to act with the tacit approval of local governments -- what does that say about our system, where the likelihood of being executed is in great part a consequence of race, income and where a murder was committed?

ROLAND NICHOLSON JR.

Chairman, The Fortune Society

New York, June 19, 2001

All reactions:

1Larry Gaffney