Tag Archives: Fukui case

Breaking News: Two Retrial Pleas Turned Down in Japan Today…

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Kana Sasakura | 2 comments

Unbelievable…… Kagoshima District Court and Nagoya High Court both turned down the retrial plea of two cases (Ohsaki Case and Fukui Case) today. Read about the Ohsaki Case here, and Fukui Case here.

Here is an article about the Ohsaki case by mainichi.jp:

Court rejects appeal for retrial over 1979 murder case

KAGOSHIMA, Japan (Kyodo) — The Kagoshima District Court rejected on Wednesday an appeal for a retrial filed by a woman who was convicted and served a 10-year prison term for killing her brother-in-law in 1979 in Kagoshima Prefecture for insurance money.

The decision came after the district court had initially decided to reopen the case involving Ayako Haraguchi, now 85, in 2002, which was overruled by the Fukuoka High Court in 2004. The high court’s decision was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court.

The murder occurred in October 1979, when Kunio Nakamura, 42, was found dead in a cattle stable beside his home in the town of Osaki, Kagoshima. Continue reading →

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Posted in Asia, Eyewitness identification, False confessions, Inquisitional and adversarial systems of justice

Tagged Fukui case, Japan, Ohsaki case, Osaki case

Ａnother Court Decision to be Handed Down Today — Fukui Case

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Kana Sasakura | 1 comment

From Yomiuri Shimbun (see the link). Shoji Maekawa, the defendant in Fukui Case (center). Shoji Sakurai (left), and Takao Sugiyama(right), two defendants in so-called Fukawa Case, were both exonerated in 2011.

Two decisions concerning wrongful convictions will be handed down today in Japan. One is Ohsaki case which I posted about yesterday, and the other is Fukui case.

Fukui case involves a 1986 murder of a 15-year-old girl. The defendant (Shoji Maekawa) in the case was acquitted by the Fukui District Court in 1990, but the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court vacated the decision and gave Maekawa 8 years in prison in 1995 (the Japanese criminal justice system allows the prosecutors to appeal a verdict of acquittal).

Maekawa petitioned to open a retrial in 2004, and the Kanazawa Branch　granted his petition in November 2011. The prosecutors filed an objection to the High Court, and the decision by the High Court will be handed down today (on March 6th, 2013).