Man freed after new DNA tests believes lay jurors would not have acquitted him

Sunday 07th June, 08:32 AM JST

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kaminarioyaji at 11:32 AM JST - 7th June

And why do these pages always take out my apostrophes?
TumbleDry at 12:04 PM JST - 7th June

kiwiboy: because they need to record evidences. if there is no evidence, they have to fabric them and coerce suspects. This process should not be recorded.
GW at 12:37 PM JST - 7th June

i bet a new jury today wud convict this guy even with current testing capabilities.

The justice system here is to be truly feared! Scary scary stuff
sakurasuki at 12:47 PM JST - 7th June

‘‘I can never forgive the police officers and prosecutors unless they apologize to me, my parents and siblings...I also want the judges to apologize, too,’’ he said.

Yes Sugaya-san I support you, go get them!
BBLeo at 01:02 PM JST - 7th June

What I just read now, I think that more people will hang hang than before. Lay jurors system will certainly not work as I have said a while back. What sort of a leagal fracas is this? Six jurors instead of twelve. Does judges need someone next to themm to keep them awake? Toshikazu Sugaya should sue cops, prosecutors and judges with their asses off to teach them a lesson. How long will jurors last in the courts? No juror should be seating in the court room if doesn't belive into DNA and advanced technology.
BurakuminDes at 01:36 PM JST - 7th June

Im against the death penalty, and this case is a glaring example of why it is wrong. I also hope the police responsible for this corruption of justice serve very, very long sentences behind bars, where they can enjoy mixing it up with the very people theyve likely mistreated in the past. Mmmmm I wonder what they will be served up at lunchtimes?
norinrad21 at 03:29 PM JST - 7th June

Another innocent life ruined.
scoobydoo at 03:34 PM JST - 7th June

Its not just a problem in Japan and I know that not all Japanese Judges can be painted in the negative way they generally have been in these discussions. Every country has falsely accused people supported by fabricated incriminating evidence, purposely with held exonerating evidence and bogus official witnesses and laws that prevent the truth being disclosed in a court of law and true justice not being executed by the courts. There are plenty of movies based on true stories on this exact subject. So if you think it only happens in Japan you are seriously mislead. You will possibly find that a greater number of the wrongly indicted are black or minority ethnic groups.
Brunobear at 04:51 PM JST - 7th June

I am veru sorry fopr this poor man whose life has been stolen from him and reputation ruined. Imagine the terrible affects on his extended family and their reputations. The culprits as usual will walk away scott free and never fess up to their wrongdoings.

i find the whole legal system a great disappointment. I watch cases and see highly paid legal professionals more concerned about putting on a pompous eloquent performance and parading around like bower birds and wrongfully arguing about the merits of the individual combatants, than simply using facts and statutory codified laws or common law to get a meritorious result. Courts are evil unhappy places wet with tears. I have not experienced the French system where they have trained judges (not former barristers) and the aim is to get full disclosure of facts, rather than our British system of trying to hide those facts and witnesses that don't suit your case or trying to discredit the character of your opponents witnesses.

In Australia we recently had a major bank that failed to get some a clients accountant convicted of fraud via the police on the high standard of proof for criminal matters of "beyond reasonable doubt" so they had a second go in the civil courts where there is a much lower standard of proof, "on the balance of probabilities". The guy the bank was pursuing was penniless and suicidal, but that did not stop them pursuing him for $2.7m plus legal costs they had no hope of ever collecting. He did attempt suicide during the trial, from in my view, the poor performance of his legal team and drug addicted QC who died shortly after from an overdose of illicit drugs, and the failure of the bank lawyers, to tender documents and bank entries when cross examining him. It was a disgrace. Knowing the banking law, I tried to help the defendants QC but he failed to present properly the critical banking law that would have destroyed the banks case. Then I read soon after he was found dead from a drug overdose in a hotel room with two prostitutes.

His tragic client had spent $750,000 on legal fees with that legal team which left him with nothing. I could have solved it in ten minutes with the initial critical facts. The trial went for 14 days and cost the State a fortune.

So it does not have to be a bad DNA test or police withholding exonerating evidence to get a wrongful judgment. The legal profession are very capable of doing it on their own from excrutiating incompetance.

I feel sorry for the mans parents in both cases.
Tiresias at 06:59 PM JST - 7th June

The senpai kohai relationship is not the only problem with the introduction of juries in Japan. A bigger problem will be the overwhelming belief that once someone is arrested, they must be guilty of a crime. That and the huge, seemingly unquestioning support for the death penalty among the Japanese public as well as their uncritical attitude to policing does not bode well for innocent suspects in a country with 23 day detention periods and a conviction rate of over 90%.
LIBERTAS at 04:27 AM JST - 8th June

DNA: Intelligent science. Lay Jurors: Stupid ba-ba's & jee-jees. Congratulations, Japan. You've just made a bad system worse!
BigInJapan at 10:01 AM JST - 8th June

re: scoobydoo You miss one point. In Japan, if someone is a suspect and the police says he/she is guilty, then in more than 95% of cases, the judge says he/she is guilty. What a lucky strike, huh? Or just have a high pressure to make up the cases, and forge as much as they can?
randomenigma at 01:29 PM JST - 8th June

I hope he gets adequate compensation for this. If I were locked up for 17 years and then let out with a "whoops, our bad", I would at minimum want my $100,000 per year wage plus reasonable pay rises which they deprived me of during this period, plus full written apologies from everyone involved.
sf2k at 03:28 PM JST - 8th June

can the 20th century be far behind?
Fadamor at 03:34 AM JST - 9th June

Randomenigma, Really? School bus drivers in Japan got $100,000 (10,000,000 yen) per year back in 1990? Wow. Nice gig!

I agree with the man, though. If a jury had been presented with the same evidence that convicted him back then, he probably would have been convicted anyways. The difference is the NEW test which resulted in the system he's demanding an apology from agreeing that he was innocent.