A man who served seven years in prison for the 1986 murder of a junior high school student was acquitted Friday at the conclusion of a retrial, with a Japanese high court dismissing the credibility of the testimony of his acquaintances that led to his initial guilty verdict.
In the ruling handed down on 60-year-old Shoshi Maekawa, the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court acknowledged the possibility that police had asked the acquaintances leading questions during their investigation over the teenage girl’s murder, which took place in Fukui, central Japan.
The case is the latest high-profile acquittal in Japan following that of 89-year-old Iwao Hakamata who was exonerated last year over a 1966 quadruple murder in Shizuoka Prefecture.
The focus of the retrial in Maekawa’s case — given the lack of any direct evidence linking him to the murder — centered on the credibility of a witness statement from one of the acquaintances who claimed to have seen him wearing blood-stained clothes.
Presiding Judge Keisuke Masuda pointed to “reasonable doubt that testimony was shaped through an undue act” by the police, who at that time were struggling with the lack of progress in the investigation, such as asking leading questions to Maekawa’s acquaintances.
“I feel sorry for the great hardship” Maekawa has had to undergo, the judge said.
Maekawa was accused of murdering the 15-year-old girl at her home in March 1986. The Fukui District Court acquitted him in 1990, but the Kanazawa branch overturned the decision and found him guilty in 1995, a ruling that was later finalized.
The Kanazawa branch decided in 2011 to reopen the case, but the decision was overturned by the Nagoya High Court in 2013 following an objection by prosecutors.
The latest request for a retrial was filed in 2022 and the Kanazawa branch ordered the retrial in October 2024 after finding the acquaintances’ testimony lacked credibility.
The acquittal had been largely expected, as prosecutors were unable to present any new evidence to add to the circumstantial evidence, under which he was originally convicted, at the hearing in March this year that lasted just one day.
Maekawa had pleaded not guilty since his arrest in 1987.
Kyodo News
