Kumamoto Pref. Also Ordered to Pay Damages over 1985 Murder Case

Tokyo, July 27 (Jiji Press)--Fukuoka High Court on Monday ordered the prefectural government of Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, to pay damages jointly with the Japanese government over the wrongful conviction in a 1985 murder case in Kumamoto.

Presiding Judge Takeshi Okada overturned a lower court ruling that had ordered only the national government to pay damages.

The judge ordered the national and prefectural governments to jointly pay a total of some 23.8 million yen in damages to the family of Koki Miyata, who died in October 2020 after being acquitted in March 2019 in a retrial of the murder case.

The judge found that prosecutors had breached their duty by failing to withdraw the indictment, while also concluding that the Kumamoto prefectural police investigation was unlawful, a finding that was not recognized by the lower court ruling.

The day's ruling said the evidence used to find Miyata guilty consisted "essentially only of a confession made during an investigation."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]