A man thought to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate was granted a retrial by a court in Japan on Monday. Iwao Hakamada, 87, was convicted of killing a family of four in 1968 and sentenced to death by hanging. Hakamada spent 45 years on death row until 2014, when he was released after new evidence emerged suggesting police may have fabricated evidence in the case. The Tokyo high court has now ruled that the former boxer’s case should be tried again, 43 years after his death sentence was finalized in 1980. “I have waited 57 years for this day, and now it has arrived,” his 90-year-old sister, Hideko, said. “Finally a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.” Amnesty International Japan director Hideaki Nakagawa said Hakamada’s conviction was “based on a forced ‘confession’ and there are serious doubts about the other evidence used against him.”
