Paroled murderer maintains innocence over 1963 Sayama case

Japan Policy & Politics, Jan 28, 2002

TOKYO, Jan. 25 Kyodo

A man sentenced to life in prison for the 1963 murder of a high school girl and later paroled expressed sadness and disappointment Friday over the recent rejection of a formal objection to the Tokyo High Court's denial in 1999 of a request for a retrial.

''I want the label of murderer, which is bearing so heavily on me, removed,'' Kazuo Ishikawa, 63, told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo in reference to the high court's recent decision to dismiss a formal objection protesting its 1999 decision to deny the second request.

In response, Ishikawa and his defense team are planning to lodge a complaint, a special interlocutory appeal, Tuesday.

Expressing anger over the authorities' unwillingness to consider results of scientific testing, he said that his ''innocence has been verified through evidence in all aspects'' and that this can be proven if ''investigations into the truth are conducted.''

In the second request for a retrial, Ishikawa's defense team had submitted to the high court a report introducing new evidence, including testimony that handwriting in a threatening letter was not Ishikawa's, and parts of the letter could not have been written by him given his academic ability at the time.

During the news conference, Ishikawa said he felt constrained over his parole status. He was paroled in 1994.

Taketoshi Nakayama, a defense lawyer at the news conference, criticized the court's ruling as having ''no substance at all'' and as carrying the same reasons for rejecting their request for the retrial as its previous decision.

''How can such a ruling be handed down without checking the facts?'' Nakayama said.

Ishikawa's defense team had argued that the court's earlier decision to reject their second retrial application was unsatisfactory.

Ishikawa filed the first appeal for a retrial while in prison. This request was rejected in 1985. His second appeal in 1986 was denied by the high court in 1999.

He was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and killing Yoshie Nakata, 16, in May 1963 in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

The case, widely known as the ''Sayama Incident,'' received a great deal of publicity as Ishikawa's supporters claimed his prosecution was part of ongoing discrimination against ''burakumin,'' former social outcasts in Japan.

He confessed to the killing immediately after his arrest on an unrelated charge of theft, but later retracted the confession and pleaded not guilty to the murder.