crime

Osaka court orders retrial for man convicted of rape

31 Comments

The Osaka District Court has ordered a retrial for a man who was convicted of rape in 2011 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. The court said new evidence revealed the man’s accuser had provided false testimony.

The man – whom Japanese news outlets are not naming – was accused of raping the same woman in both 2004 and 2008, and sexually assaulting her once again later in 2008. The guilty verdict was apparently based largely on the woman’s testimony and that of at least one eyewitness, TV Asahi reported.

The man vehemently denied the woman’s claims, but he was sentenced to 12 years in jail for his alleged crime. During his time in jail, the defendant appealed for a retrial and finally managed to get a request for a re-examination of the case via his lawyer.

Last November, he was released after serving 3 1/2 years after a reevaluation of medical exams proved that the woman had not incurred any sexual assault. The court then ordered that the woman produce other evidence and present it at a follow-up trial.

The man's lawyers have demanded the retrial so that his name be completely cleared and that he be awarded compensation, TV Asahi reported. The court has also admonished prosecutors for not examining the woman's medical records at the time of the trial.

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The court has also admonished prosecutors for not examining the woman’s medical records at the time of the trial.

They should admonish his defense team for not pointing that out in the original trial as well.

This is just one more example of why the Japanese justice system is broken.

15 ( +18 / -3 )

... exams proved that the woman had not incurred any sexual assault.

How could an exam prove that?

0 ( +4 / -4 )

@Turbo: Basically, checking for DNA or tissue damage. Not sure how to say this delicately, but during rape the woman is most likely not interested (not producing vaginal fluid for lubrication), so the frcitions involved cause a lot of tissue tearing in the lower regions.

In addition, there may be bruises or other signs force was used.

Finally, finding DNA (which may or may not indicate rape) from within the body, under the fingernails etc is standard.

The goal is to 1) Establish that person A was with/had contact/was in sexual relations with person B and then, if true, if the manner of relationship is mutual or something worse.

http://www.911rape.org/getting-help/medical-care/the-sexual-assault-exam

7 ( +8 / -1 )

The man’s lawyers have demanded the retrial so that his name be completely cleared and that he be awarded compensation, TV Asahi reported. The court has also admonished prosecutors for not examining the woman’s medical records at the time of the trial.

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It sounds there were her medical records but DA did not use/ Then now his DNA and DNA of semen exgtracted from her at that time records were all compared - routine procedure. DAs ignored records.

Isn't perjuries are more heavily sentenced?

His attorney team's insistence must be denied in original court. Your Honor ,,,, and DA oppose then Judsge give Motion granted to either DA or Defense attorneys. So defense attorney team had to appeal and this worked.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

The trials and travails of Japanese justice.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If he is innocent, that woman has a lot questions to answer and a lot of apologizing to do

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Apologies aside - if it is a malicious fabrication she must do time - no debate.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

@browny: You are right. She will be sentenced heavily. Some prosecutors like to accumulate winning numbers than justice. In this case, they ignored her medical records. She just will be arrested for perjury crime. Long time. Also eye witness will be arrested.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

It Should be shameful to the Japanese that such events occur. I'm not sure if the majority of Japanese really care about such things. I would hope they do, but I kind of doubt it in my heart.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

karlrb MAR. 01, 2015 - 10:29AM JST It Should be shameful to the Japanese that such events occur.

Why should it be shameful to people who had no role in deciding the case, no role in selecting or training the judge(s) or lawyers who tried the case, and no role in writing the laws that guided the trial? Do you propose Japan owes some kind of blood debt, where the failures of one person are the responsibility of the entire race?

Rape is a very difficult crime to try. Evidence is hard to collect, and the legal system must strike a perilous balance between making it easy for victims to see their aggressors be brought to justice and preventing innocent accused rapists from being convicted despite a lack of evidence. Add to that the strong likelihood in my experience that people interpreting the evidence and testimony will side not with whoever has the best case objectively, but who they personally identify with the most, and you end up with a crime that it is virtually impossible to get a 100% accurate ruling rate on. In every one of our birth countries, cases exactly like this happen all the time, and we should not be shamed for it any more the Japanese people should be.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Rape is a very serious accusation and can seriously adversely affect the accused's life even he is found innocent. If there aren't any seriously consequences in place for making false rape accusations, there definitely should be. It not only potentially ruins someone's life, it also puts real rape victims in a really bad light, and makes it that much more difficult to prove in court.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

If he is found innocent and there is proof she lied, she needs to be doing time.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@turbotsat

a medical exam can help prove it. That's why such exams are critical.

If found innocent, as in, the woman made it up, the woman seldom does any time.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

If he is found innocent and there is proof she lied, she needs to be doing time.

Yeah, as much time as he was sentenced to.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

kaynide, Aaron: ... Not sure how to say this delicately ... a medical exam can help prove it ...

That is so, those are indications that an assault occurred, but are their absence a conclusive proof that NO assault occurred? I don't think so.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

They've got to be kidding. They're over-ruling the evidence of two eye witnesses (the rape victim and one other eye witness) because the medical examination wasn't conclusive?

These medical examinations are frequently inconclusive. Just like men can get hard without consent, so women can also get wet without consent, and so medical examinations often do not reveal any vaginal tearing or abrasions. There's also the issue of whether the woman washed before the test (a natural and entirely normal reaction to that sort of violation), how long after the assault the examination took place, how carefully the evidence was handled, whether a condom was used, the woman's sexual experience (and this is a factor that is rarely taken into account as courts often interpret "multiple sexual partners" as "slut who was asking for it"), and so forth.

I'm sorry, but this seems like a case of old men who think that a woman has to be a bloodied mess (preferably dead) before they'll contemplate the fact that maybe she didn't consent to the sex.

Two eye witnesses seems like a reasonable basis for finding someone guilty if their testimony was relevant and reliable. Or are we headed towards the Islamic Sharia law where anything less than four witnesses to a rape and it isn't really rape?

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

Rape victim is not an "eye witness". You must be a third party. If there is a prior connection between a third party and the victim, the case is weakened. Also: you do not need to prove innocence, you need to prove guilt. Wake up children and think before you post.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Eye witness in this case has to be persons who witnessed rape scene. Prosecuting team ignored her medical reports. @Fungy: Where iou got idea of 'inconclusive'. Fornssic Medical Examiners report what they examined and they do not add their opinions. (Prohibited ).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Turbo:

That is so, those are indications that an assault occurred, but are their absence a conclusive proof that NO assault occurred? I don't think so.

The defense is innocent until proven guilty, therefore the onus of finding proof of guilt is on the prosecutor, not the defense.

...therefore, the defense doesn't need to prove that X didn't happen, only that the prosecution's proof is false.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Not sure if you can blame too many people besides the woman who accused the victim (and the victim is the man here, if he was innocent) and the DA for being rather inept. The woman should do at least as much time as the man did, and then another few years for ruining his life on top of that. People need to learn that falsely accusing someone is not a game.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

At the end of this new trial, defence attorney team will request that defenedenet to be freed. Then the new prosecution attorney will say : Your honor, prosecution concur defense motion" Then judge orderas perjured people to be detained in jail before announces court adjourned.

Prosecutors are not cops. Cops act Guilty until proven innocent, Prosecutors act innocent until proven guilty.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

toshikoMar. 01, 2015 - 08:13PM JST Prosecuting team ignored her medical reports.

The rules of evidence in Japan would require that they disclose the medical report to the defense team. Are we dealing with a case of new evidence here or a case of the prosecution team suppressing evidence that damaged their case.

New evidence is excusable, but if the prosecution suppressed evidence that they should have disclosed then this isn't new evidence, it is criminal misconduct by the prosecution.

@Fungy: Where iou got idea of 'inconclusive'. Fornssic Medical Examiners report what they examined and they do not add their opinions. (Prohibited ).

Inconclusive means that, on examination of the evidence by a qualified medical professional, there is no evidence conclusively for or against violent sex (which is all you can say even under the best of circumstances).

I didn't state the state medical examiner would reach this conclusion, that's your (incorrect) assumption. If anyone has made a mistake here then it is you. Feel free to apologise.

The only way you would get a conclusive finding against rape would be if there was evidence that the woman had not had sex in quite some time.

If this was the case then the prosecution suppressed evidence that would negatively impact on the credibility of their key witness, and I can see how the decision would have to be overturned, however we don't know what the medical report said at all.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

@Fungy The new trial hasn;t started yet. For retrial, original are used so the original medical record. No new evidence There is no new evidence yet for rretrial. Foresnic medica; examiners do not give conclusion The court record pf this case did not have any mention of medical records. Medical records were not included/ the prosecuter of the trial was admonished because he did not use any medical record of hers. No chance to state inconclusive when medical records were not used at the trial/

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Frungy: These medical examinations are frequently inconclusive. Just like ... (multiple reasons) ...

kaynide: ...therefore, the defense doesn't need to prove that X didn't happen, only that the prosecution's proof is false.

JT: Last November, he was released after serving 3 1/2 years after a reevaluation of medical exams proved that the woman had not incurred any sexual assault.

The point is, absence of physical evidence of assault is not conclusive evidence that the assault didn't occur, for all the reasons Frungy gave. I don't see why his post got 4 downvotes.

If the exam DOES show evidence, then you've got one base covered. But the medical exam was not the only evidence used to convict the guy.

Not saying the guy is guilty. Apparently the witnesses have recanted on some points. But without details, how to know if those points are not exactly what we are discussing (the med exam) and they are just giving that up?

Hopefully more details as to exactly what is recanted will come out in the retrial.

Google Translate of news articles from other sources:

District Public Prosecutors Office also addition to the fact that two people had a false testimony, as "men was confirmed also" objective evidence "that was shown and are not involved in the incident", ... This "objective evidence", District Public Prosecutors Office has not been revealed because of the "privacy of people involved." In contrast, where the Asahi Shimbun has promoted the interview, turned out to be was a medical records of doctors who examined at the time the women who complained of sexual damage. Gist of the view that "There is no trace of sexual damage in the body of the woman" had been written in the record. ... Woman's mother in investigation stage is based on the fact that had been described as "daughter took him to medical institutions", ...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

When rape is reported. the victim is entered to Emergency Room (ER) her body examination include injuries and extracting semen from her ..... Then extract his .... from nis .... for DNA ,compaarison. Three compiter screens and center screen is used for matching inspection. Slowly right DNA image moves to center while left DNA image moves to center to match up up then bottom i comment dispay .percentage of ,matching. 0.00000,,,,99.9999 etc. New pnes have displlay pf pther result/ Sometimes, there is no semen but women/s bodies are thoroughly wiped to extract any liquid.

Used to be with three computers but there are new one that only use three images on one computer that is not old 640 by 300 grit screen computer .

1 ( +1 / -0 )

kaynideMar. 01, 2015 - 08:28AM JST @Turbo: Basically, checking for DNA or tissue damage. Not sure how to say this delicately, but during rape the woman is most likely not interested (not producing vaginal fluid for lubrication)

That is incorrect, lubrication can occur and it's not that uncommon, regardless, since he was charged with several incidents over several years they probably knew each other and tissue damage isn't a reliable indicator of rape. It's only used to establish whether or not intercourse took place.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

If this woman made this up I would like to see her do some time for sure, no suspended sentence.

As for the prosecutors, THEY need to do some time as well! Time & time again we see prosecutors in Japan forcing confessions, ignoring evidence, MAKING evidence up etc etc!!! all with no consequence what so ever, a few meaningless bows at best!

If this woman was attacked I hope they figure this out & find the real perpetrator!

Clearly the J-justice system is severely defective on many fronts, THATS why Japanese should care, but I don't think most give a damn, they seem happy with the guilty first, good luck if your innocent attitude, primitive!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@turbo:Google Translate of news articles from other sources: District Public Prosecutors Office also addition to the fact that two people had a false testimony, as "men was confirmed also" objective evidence "that was shown and are not involved in the incident", ... This "objective evidence", District Public Prosecutors Office has not been revealed because of the "privacy of people involved." In contrast, where the Asahi Shimbun has promoted the interview, turned out to be was a medical records of doctors who examined at the time the women who complained of sexual damage. Gist of the view that "There is no trace of sexual damage in the body of the woman" had been written in the record. ... Woman's mother in investigation stage is based on the fact that had been described as "daughter took him to medical institutions",

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Turbo wrote above.

Hope this time he wll be ezonerated if he is innocent and it seems he is truky innocent.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Send that vile bitch to prison for 12 years. Then we'll call it equal. False accusers MUST be punished just as badly as criminals. If you raise the stakes, these skanks would think twice before they try and screw up somebody's life for an eternity.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sometimes there is or are eyewitness in rape scene, some peeping Thomas from windows observe rape scene through no curtain glass window from outside.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Wow, if she was lying, she should do time. At least 5 years for ruining his life!!!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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