Prosecutors said Monday they will not appeal a recent court decision ordering a retrial for a man who served a seven-year prison sentence over the 1986 murder of a junior high school girl in central Japan.
In the retrial, Shoshi Maekawa, 59, is likely to be acquitted as the criminal procedure law says that a retrial must be opened if there is “clear evidence to find the accused not guilty.”
The Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court ordered a retrial Wednesday for Maekawa, questioning the credibility of the testimonies of his acquaintances that led to his conviction, after prosecutors disclosed 287 new pieces of evidence.
Shoshi Maekawa attends a news conference in the central Japan city of Fukui on Oct. 28, 2024, after prosecutors decided not to appeal a recent court decision ordering a retrial over the 1986 murder of a junior high school girl for which he served a seven-year prison sentence. (Kyodo)
“I am relieved. I’m a little happy now,” Maekawa told a press conference in Fukui Prefecture.
There was no direct evidence linking Maekawa to the murder. He has maintained his innocence since his arrest in 1987, and filed his second request for a retrial in 2022.
The Kanazawa court cited the possibility that the man who first implicated Maekawa in the killing may have tried to use his testimony as a bargaining chip for a more lenient sentence or to secure bail in his own criminal case.
It also raised concerns that police forced others to give testimonies consistent with the first statement as the investigation was stalling at the time, concluding that Maekawa could not be the perpetrator.
Maekawa was arrested on suspicion of murdering 15-year-old Tomoko Takahashi at her home in Fukui Prefecture. The Fukui District Court acquitted him in 1990, but he was convicted by the high court’s Kanazawa branch, and the Supreme Court upheld the ruling.
Following the first request for a retrial, the Kanazawa court decided in 2011 to reopen the case, but the decision was overturned by the Nagoya High Court after an objection from prosecutors.
The latest decision by the Kanazawa court follows the recent acquittal in the retrial of an 88-year-old man who spent nearly half a century on death row over a quadruple murder in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966.
Related coverage:
Japan court orders retrial of man over 1986 schoolgirl murder