High Court Branch Grants Retrial over 1986 Fukui Murder
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Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref., Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--The Kanazawa branch of Nagoya High Court on Wednesday accepted the second retrial plea by Shoji Maegawa, 59, who had served a prison sentence for the 1986 murder of a then 15-year-old junior high school student in the city of Fukui, central Japan.
Explaining the decision, presiding judge Koji Yamada said that suspicions remained that investigators, facing an impasse in their investigation, took unfair actions such as directing a person's testimony.
Maegawa's first retrial plea was approved by the Kanazawa branch in 2011, but it was revoked by the high court in 2013, and the revocation was finalized by the Supreme Court in 2014. Maegawa then submitted his second plea in 2022.
"I'm relieved (by the latest court decision). I want to express my heartfelt gratitude," Maegawa told reporters outside the court branch amid cheers and applause from his supporters. "This is a milestone, but my struggle still continues," he added.
In the absence of clear physical evidence or witnesses, a point of dispute was the credibility of the testimony of an acquaintance of Maegawa, who claimed to have seen blood on him.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]