The Supreme Court has upheld a high court decision to reopen a case involving a deceased man who had been serving a life sentence over a murder in Shiga Prefecture in 1984.
The top court¡¯s decision, finalized Tuesday, makes it the first case in recent history in which a retrial was granted for a deceased inmate who had been sentenced to life in prison or a heavier penalty.
Known as the Hino town incident, the robbery-murder took place in December 1984 in Shiga Prefecture where a 69-year-old woman who ran a local liquor shop had gone missing. Her body was found in the same town a month later, with an opened portable safe belonging to the woman also found four months after her initial disappearance.
Police questioned Hiromu Sakahara, who was a regular at the store, but he denied involvement in the crime. He was released after his wife provided an alibi for him for the night before the woman¡¯s disappearance.
However, as the investigation stalled, police went back to Sakahara and questioned him intensely. He allegedly confessed to the crime and was arrested in March 1988, more than three years after the murder.
Despite pleading not guilty, the Otsu District Court sentenced Sakahara to life in prison in 1995. The court said that although his confession contained inconsistencies, there was enough circumstantial evidence to prove his guilt.
The Osaka High Court, meanwhile, said that the indirect evidence used in the first trial as the basis for his conviction was not enough. But unlike the lower court, it ruled in 1997 that his confession was enough to find him guilty.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence that suggested Sakahara¡¯s involvement in the crime, the ruling was finalized by the Supreme Court in 2000.
Sakahara maintained his innocence and filed for a retrial in 2001. However, he died from an illness in 2011 at the age of 75 while serving his life sentence. After his death, his surviving family members continued to seek a retrial, which was granted on Tuesday by the Supreme Court¡¯s three judges in a unanimous decision.
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