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Critical evidence in a 1999 murder case in Tokyo was misfiled by police and went undiscovered for 12 years as a result, authorities said Sunday.
The case concerns the murder of a 28-year-old woman in an apartment in Itabashi. According to NTV, the palm prints of prime suspect Seiji Uchida, 38, were taken from the crime scene and then misplaced in the police database. Sources say that the officer who filed the evidence did so under the supervision of an experienced superior who also failed to notice the mistake, NTV reported.
The evidence was found this year when an officer engaged in a separate investigation into Uchida, who was arrested this year for another crime, remembered the case and searched through the original materials.
The National Police Agency has urged all police stations to ensure that similar mistakes have not taken place in their databases, NTV reported.
© Japan Today
25 Comments
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Elbuda Mexicano
Horrible news! I hope this killer is arrested ASAP!
Tamesu San
"The National Police Agency has urged all police stations to ensure that similar mistakes have not taken place in their databases"
lets see what really happens......
CrazyJoe
The killer is Seiji Uchida, he was arrested this year for the murder. Police could have arrested Uchida earlier if not for the bungle. That's what the article is about.
Maitake
Horrible news! I hope the J-cops get some filing skills ASAP!!!!
CrazyJoe
There is no statue of limitations for murder in Japan. The law was amended in April 2010. (retroactive for 15 years).
Source: http://isata.seesaa.net/article/147992386.html
Cricky
What are the cops doing? Besides forcing confessions from the innocent, misplacing evidence and turning those in danger away? It has become a weekly comedy. Must be time for a complete review from the ground up. Or an emphasis on training and professionalism.
darkbob
Hardly reassuring knowing the keystones have bungled things again. They don't have even one ounce of my trust I'm afraid.
LifeIsPain
The first time you have heard of such a mistake is not the time to be yelling "keystones" Mistakes happen. Plenty of good reasons to call the J-plods "keystones" but this is not it.
What surprises me is that a guy so dumb as to leave a palm print at a murder scene did not do something equally stupid in a matter of months in get caught soon after. Took this over a decade. Guy must at least have luck on his side.
gaijinfo
C'mon, don't be so hard on the J-stones. It's tough catching criminals if they don't walk into the Koban and confess.
Badge213
Actually SOL was eliminated for Murder.
CrazyJoe
The statue of limitations for murder got axed on April 27, 2010.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20100428a4.html
LifeIsPain
Anyone counting on the SOL is now SOL! LOL!
wanderlust
A turn up for the books. Usually they jail innocent people, misfile evidence that would have shown they were not guilty, force confessions, mass produce depositions, and falsify evidence to maintain their high conviction rate...
J-pol are losing it...
timtak
I wonder if the victims of the crime that was committed this year can sue the police for facilitating it.
GW
Kinda hard to tell just how they screwed up, the data base sounds like it might be a shoe box collection of stuff that the keystone did something with...........
CrazyJoe
"Anyone counting on the SOL is now SOL! LOL!"
Nolo contendere!
Elbuda Mexicano
On the other how many innocent people have also been put behind bars??
Cos
Not sure they did it. The mistake was failing to include Uchida in the national data base. But even if he has been in the DB, they wouldn't have checked his prints as they take print samples only for foreigners (don't they ?) or for Japanese nationals arrested for something serious... If I understand well, they got prints to compare only because he was involved in the second murder, so that was too late for this person anyway. Maybe he had a criminal record, and his prints in the DB from the start ? The article doesn't precise.
Tamesu San
@ "C'mon, don't be so hard on the J-stones. It's tough catching criminals if they don't walk into the Koban and confess."
A guy from base told me that he was driving in Shinagawa, and they mistook him for a gaigin who did something in Roppongi, so they fingerprinted him and took a DNA swab of his mouth..but let him go later....
megosaa
common human error. happens everywhere and mostly goes unreported and if so,unexaggerated.
Elbuda Mexicano
Very scary all of these cold hearted comments!