Retrial and wrongful conviction experts released a joint statement Monday opposing a central government council¡¯s controversial proposal to reform the retrial system.
The proposal by the Legislative Council, which advises the justice minister, is saddled with ¡°serious problems,¡± the group of 142 criminal law researchers and other experts said.
In February, the council advised that the scope of evidence investigative authorities must disclose in retrial request proceedings be limited and that the prosecution continue to be allowed to appeal retrial orders.
The government had planned to introduce a bill to amend the criminal procedure law accordingly. But it is now considering setting a limit to the prosecution¡¯s right to appeal, in response to calls from many members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for a complete ban on such appeals that they say could delay relief for victims of false charges.
In the statement, the experts demanded that evidence be shown to retrial petitioners and that the scope of disclosure orders be broad. They also opposed proposed penalties for using disclosed evidence for improper purposes, such as making it available to supporters of a retrial and the news media.
They stressed that prohibiting the prosecution from appealing retrial orders ¡°would help bring a retrial to a final ruling faster.¡±
In the past, prosecutors have made repeated appeals against court decisions to reopen trials, showing that the system is ripe for abuse, the experts said.
¡°We feel a sense of crisis,¡± Hiroyuki Kuzuno, professor at Aoyama Gakuin University and an organizer of the joint statement, said at a news conference in Tokyo. ¡°We thought we should clarify our opinion because this law revision would concern the foundation of criminal justice.¡±
¡°The views of researchers in the Legislative Council are totally different from those of the 142 experts and do not reflect at all either common understanding or majority theory in our academic community,¡± said Tomonobu Ishida, a professor at Meiji University.
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