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Case Name Date of Incident Date of Arrest |
Defendant's Name(s) (Family First) F=female |
Charges ~~~~ Confessed? |
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布川 Ibaragi 1967/08/30 |
SAKURAI Shoji (20) Arrested 1967/10/10 SUGIYAMA Takao (20) Arrested 1967/10/16 Exonerated: 2011 Time Served: 29 years |
Murder Robbery |
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Summary A 62 year old woman was found strangled in her home in the village of Fukawa located in Tonegawa-cho, Ibaragi-prefecture. After investigating well over a hundred people, police eliminated all but some ten or more from a list of suspects. Sakurai, aged 20 at the time, was under arrest for theft of a belt and a single pair of trousers. He was interrogated from morning till night, and after five days, confessed to the murder with with Sugiyama as accomplice. Court Chronology District Court 1970/10/06 Life Imprisonment High Court 1973/12/20 Life Imprisonment Supreme Court 1978/07/03 Confirmed Later Actions 1983/12/23 Request for retrial requested 1996 Defendants are paroled 2005/09/21 Retrials Granted 2007/12/15 Supreme Court affirms retrial request. 2011/May/25 Exonerated! 2015 Sugiyama passes away. 2019/May 27 Tokyo D.C Sakurai awarded $690,000 (76 million yen) in state redress civil suit. 2021/Aug/27 Tokyo H.C. affirms civil suit with minor changes. |
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