High Court Acquits Man in a Rape Case Based on New DNA Evidence

MIYAZAKI – A high court has acquitted a man charged with raping a teenage girl in 2012, overturning a lower court ruling that gave him a four-year prison term.

The Fukuoka High Court’s Miyazaki branch issued a ruling Tuesday saying that a fresh DNA analysis did not prove that the 23-year-old man from the city of Kagoshima was the culprit.

It also said the police may have hidden the result of an earlier DNA analysis that did not match that of the defendant.

“In determining the defendant to be the criminal, semen (found in the victim’s body) should be that of the defendant. But the DNA analysis (conducted during the appeal trial) did not support her arguments,” presiding Judge Makoto Okada said.

In the DNA examination conducted by the Kagoshima Prefectural Police, the quantity of the semen found inside the body of the 17-year-old victim was reportedly too small for analysis.

The man’s lawyers had requested a fresh DNA analysis during the appeal trial, which showed the DNA did not match his. The high court said the result “was credible.”

The court acknowledged the defendant’s release from prison last March after the DNA test was conducted.

Okada was also critical of the staff in the police crime lab, who had disposed of all the used DNA solution and the memo that recorded the analysis process.

“The possibility cannot be ruled out that (the police decided to say that an) analysis was impossible because a different person’s DNA was detected, reflecting investigators’ intentions,” he said.

Okada also criticized prosecutors for asking experts to conduct another DNA analysis without notifying the court and the defense counsel.

“It can be suspected they intended to disclose the results only in the case that the outcome turned out to be favorable for them,” he said.

Kazunori Nakada, deputy chief prosecutor of the Fukuoka High Court Public Prosecutor’s Office, said it is “deplorable” that the court dismissed their arguments and that it will “deal appropriately” with the ruling after checking the content thoroughly.

The man, who requested his name be withheld, told reporters he was able to make it through the difficult period because of “the support of my family.”

“All I can say is that I’m happy,” he said, with tears in his eyes.

The Kagoshima District Court ruled in 2014 that DNA evidence detected from the victim’s breast was from the defendant. It also said the existence of semen, although unable to be analyzed, backed her accusations.

The man was indicted for allegedly assaulting the 17-year-old in an entertainment district in the city of Kagoshima in October 2012.

The man had said he had “no memory because I was drunk” and had insisted he was not guilty.