Death Penalty Movie Week to be held at Tokyo theater

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjy8cBaDopv6QH5NFRtjD_Yzv3QA6q9Obivh6jEnbFTmUvsmSr67CDc9PrTf552UiFP28151oUp7xtrR00-wZqSFDrgSSplH7_OXthyphenhyphenD0GZ0K9pyLY1g6o8N64ZYjYW5_dTn3Kpg4kHRI/s1600/Former+death-row+inmate+Iwao+Hakamada+and+his+sister.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release" border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjy8cBaDopv6QH5NFRtjD_Yzv3QA6q9Obivh6jEnbFTmUvsmSr67CDc9PrTf552UiFP28151oUp7xtrR00-wZqSFDrgSSplH7_OXthyphenhyphenD0GZ0K9pyLY1g6o8N64ZYjYW5_dTn3Kpg4kHRI/s400/Former+death-row+inmate+Iwao+Hakamada+and+his+sister.jpg" title="Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release in March 2014</td></tr></tbody></table>TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The annual Death Penalty Movie Week will be held at a Tokyo theater in February, with eight films from home and abroad providing viewers with an opportunity to think about the "right to life."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The event will take place as pro- and anti-death penalty groups have been facing off at symposiums and on other occasions since the Japan Federation of Bar Associations declared in October it would work for the abolition of capital punishment by 2020.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The eight films to be screened include 2005 German movie "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426578/" target="_blank">Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days</a>," which depicts the anti-Nazi struggle of a student who was executed, and "Freedom Moon," produced in Japan in 2016, that recounts the life of death row inmate Iwao Hakamada.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hakamada, convicted of a 1966 quadruple murder, was released in 2014 after a court decided to reopen the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The film shows how his mental state has deteriorated due to decades-long solitary confinement and the endless fear of execution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Korean popular movie "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2659414/" target="_blank">Miracle in Cell No. 7</a>," produced in 2013, will also be screened during the sixth event.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Murder victims are deprived of their lives unjustifiably, but offenders are also robbed of their 'right to live' under capital punishment," said Masakuni Ota, one of the event organizers. "People seem to accept such circumstances without question, at a time when exclusion and intolerance are prevalent around the world."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the event from Feb. 18 to 24 at the Eurospace movie theater in Tokyo's Shibuya district, four movies will be shown each day, accompanied by sessions with guest speakers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The scheduled speakers include actress Kirin Kiki, who played the mother of a death row inmate in a movie based on a true story, and pop singer Tsuyoshi Ujiki, whose father was convicted of war crimes after World War II.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We welcome both those seeking abolition of the death penalty and those who support or accept capital punishment" so the issue is discussed from various viewpoints, Ota said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The previous five Death Penalty Movie Week events attracted a total of around 6,000 viewers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the four years since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to power, 17 inmates have been hanged, with a government survey showing over 80 percent of people in Japan support the death penalty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, Tokyo was urged by the U.N. Human Rights Committee in 2014 to "give due consideration to the abolition of the death penalty."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Currently, more than two-thirds of nations have abolished the death penalty by law or in practice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For further information on the screenings, call Eurospace at 03-3461-0211 or check its website at <a href="http://www.eurospace.co.jp/" target="_blank">http://www.eurospace.co.jp/</a></div><br />Source: Mainichi, January 3, 2017<br /><br /><br /><h2>Hakamada: Tapes point to police duress in miscarriage of justice</h2><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8vj-u4mA02VRwROPa4sr8grOzhtYYHKjaBJd4YSJsFC8IhcTKrEgvqcY8Yt8LyzUy96Ci-Ht9mqZvJjLB_KV8pNigT2V_nN3t_ABNgXLifi_bu_WhtyY4a9-jj-vNxxFPCmPdD9bpnk/s1600/Iwao+Hakamada.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row." border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr8vj-u4mA02VRwROPa4sr8grOzhtYYHKjaBJd4YSJsFC8IhcTKrEgvqcY8Yt8LyzUy96Ci-Ht9mqZvJjLB_KV8pNigT2V_nN3t_ABNgXLifi_bu_WhtyY4a9-jj-vNxxFPCmPdD9bpnk/s400/Iwao+Hakamada.jpg" title="Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iwao Hakamada (left) spent more than three decades on death row.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Police records of interrogations that led to Iwao Hakamada being wrongfully convicted of multiple slayings show that the one-time death row inmate was not allowed to use the restroom as officers relentlessly tried to force him to confess.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just two days later, Hakamada, now 80, confessed to killing a family of four and setting fire to their home in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A former professional boxer, Hakamada spent more than three decades on death row. He was released in March 2014 after the Shizuoka District Court ordered a retrial, having concluded that his conviction was likely based on faked evidence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense lawyers pressing for an early retrial presented documents to the Tokyo High Court on Dec. 21, highlighting apparent brazen violations of procedures during Hakamada's interrogation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The high court is weighing whether to hear Hakamada’s case. Prosecutors have appealed the district court decision.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hakamada, who is from Hamamatsu in the prefecture, had his death penalty finalized in 1980.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defense lawyers said 24 tape recordings of Hakamada being questioned were discovered at the police storage room in October 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The tapes recorded interrogations between his arrest on Aug. 18, 1966, and late September that year after he was indicted. The lawyers played the tapes to get a better grasp of how the interrogation was carried out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They said a session on Sept. 4 was particularly problematic as it appeared Hakamada was deprived of the use of restroom facilities, as he later testified in court.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the tape, an investigator trying to get him to confess, says, “It must be the case.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After more exchanges with the investigator, Hakamada says, “I would like to use the bathroom.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The investigator responds, “Why don’t you reply (to my question) before doing so?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawyers said the recording makes clear that Hakamada had to urinate inside the interrogation room.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Get a lavatory pan. Let him urinate here,” the interrogator is heard saying.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During his trial at the Shizuoka District Court in December 1967, Hakamada testified that he was forced to urinate in the interrogation room.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I was not permitted to go to restroom on many occasions,” he said. “I was not permitted to do it properly.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The interrogator in question denied Hakamada’s account when he appeared in court as a witness in 1968.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There never was such a thing,” he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The defense team also said that among the tapes were recordings of conversations between Hakamada and his lawyers, suggesting that the police eavesdropped on them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lawyers argued that the investigators violated various laws in the course of establishing the case against Hakamada and during his trial. This, they said, was further ammunition for an early retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Forcing a suspect to urinate in the interrogation room constituted assault and cruelty by special pubic officers, and eavesdropping and recording interviews between defense lawyers and a client constituted an act of malpractice, they noted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They also noted that lying in court constitutes perjury.</div><br />Source: <a href="http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201612220063.html" target="_blank">The Asahi Shimbun</a>, December 22, 2016<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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Death Penalty Movie Week to be held at Tokyo theater

Iwao Hakamada with his sister shortly after his release in March 2014 TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The annual Death Penalty Movie Week will be held at a...

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129 inmates on death row in Japan at end of 2016

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6EoRPwsy-jk_gDUBlGLBqvCvISafQotincyMleAbJY7LCathKKHFtwO7Kj2lo7fvF2wUIEmoSRjrB2fVUVD2jTM-13hbhsYgIGiawqTNfEEf8ofUu_h9AMwtI4MGR57mUabRQKvSV-0/s1600/japan+tokyo+death+chamber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Gallows at Tokyo Detention Center" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6EoRPwsy-jk_gDUBlGLBqvCvISafQotincyMleAbJY7LCathKKHFtwO7Kj2lo7fvF2wUIEmoSRjrB2fVUVD2jTM-13hbhsYgIGiawqTNfEEf8ofUu_h9AMwtI4MGR57mUabRQKvSV-0/s400/japan+tokyo+death+chamber.jpg" title="Gallows at Tokyo Detention Center" width="333" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gallows at Tokyo Detention Center</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">TOKYO — The number of death row inmates in Japan in 2016 was 129 on Saturday, a rise of two people from 2015, while continuing to surpass the threshold of 100 since 2007.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Three inmates were executed during the year, while seven people were given the death penalty, the Ministry of Justice told Kyodo News.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of the total figure, 128 people are officially registered as inmates at detention centers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iwao Hakamada, 80, a former professional boxer convicted in the murder of four people in 1966, was released in 2014 after a court decided to open a retrial.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yasutoshi Kamata, 75, who was convicted of murdering a 9-year-old girl in Osaka and four women between 1985 and 1994, was put to death in March. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Junko Yoshida, 56, a former nurse who masterminded two murders for insurance money in 1998 and 1999 in Fukuoka Prefecture, was also executed in March.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In November, Kenichi Tajiri, 45, who killed two women in two murder-robbery cases in 2004 and 2011 in Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, was hanged, according to the ministry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The seven people newly sentenced to death last year include 25-year-old Yutaro Chiba, who in July became the first to be given capital punishment under the lay judge trial system for a crime committed by a teenager. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chiba was convicted of murdering two women in 2010 when he was 18 years old.</div><br />Source: Japan Times, January 1, 2017<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: <a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com">deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a>.</div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px solid rgb(255, 204, 0); color: black; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL4sspwgGptzvuHVklum5TwxKppRN-lIC5TN8RLZFq_B4ZOtBrX1ssXPNKQ6XpSyQFRJRtVQN45HMkpt3VX0JtOW0TovwxZAurG-AV6gh98IAXo7Ip6QlpkZr9WrM3_m943Mwy-gGxBAY/s1600/Find+us+Facebook.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULIPEaT_P6oIauxAZd17XRRxljesDLS7iIjdQXT7Xct99uHeohx4IYmiAB6S044gTjMDGSy50sL2vDzOyPZ-3vJj9zwcYQ2rgzJh9v1-QDiunKAQtLLLqJ83s38qN3HABxGIC8GsIOD0/s1600/Find+us+twitter.jpg" /></a><span id="goog_1427852018"></span><span id="goog_1427852019"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>Opposed to Capital Punishment? 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129 inmates on death row in Japan at end of 2016

Gallows at Tokyo Detention Center TOKYO — The number of death row inmates in Japan in 2016 was 129 on Saturday, a rise of two people from 20...

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