Shizuoka police chief apologizes to Iwao Hakamata after his acquittal

The chief of the Shizuoka Prefectural Police on Monday offered an apology in person to Iwao Hakamata at his home in Shizuoka Prefecture following his acquittal in a retrial over a 1966 murder case last month.
Takayoshi Tsuda visited the home of Hakamata, 88, in the city of Hamamatsu, bowing deeply for about two minutes.
“I am sorry for the pain and burden I have caused you over the last 58 years, which cannot be expressed in words,” Tsuda said to Hakamata and his older sister Hideko, 91, who fought a decadeslong legal battle on behalf of her brother.
In response, Hideko stated, “Both Iwao and I believe (what happened) was destiny. I have no intention of complaining now.”
In its retrial ruling on Sept. 26, the Shizuoka District Court said that investigators coerced Hakamata into confessing, and that bloodstained pieces of clothes believed to have been worn at the time of the crime were planted by investigative authorities.
Tsuda told reporters on Oct. 9, the day when prosecutors waived their right to appeal against the retrial ruling, that he intended to apologize to Hakamata in person.
Hakamata’s death sentence was initially finalized in 1980. But he and his defense team sought a retrial, which was granted in 2023. Hakamata was definitively exonerated when prosecutors decided not to appeal the ruling on Oct. 9.