By Hiroshi HIYAMAJapanese prosecutors again sought the death penalty in the retrial on Wednesday of an ex-boxer who was the world's longest-serving death row prisoner until his release in 2014. A district court in Shizuoka granted a retrial in 2014 after a prolonged battle and issued a stay for Hakamada's incarceration and the death penalty. The legal back-and-forth was not over: in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the High Court must reconsider its decision and the High Court ordered a retrial last year. As of December, there were 107 prisoners on death row in Japan, where the sentences are always carried out by hanging. Just nine percent of Japanese people were in favor of abolishing the death penalty in a 2019 government survey.

Source: The Guardian May 23, 2024 01:26 UTC