A Japanese man is set to receive more than 200 million yen after being sentenced to death in the 1960s.
In 1968, 32-year-old Iwao Hakamata was convicted of killing his boss, his boss’s wife and their two teenage children.
The family’s home had been set on fire two years earlier.
Now aged 89, Hakamata will be paid 217 million yen, about $1.45 million.
That sum works out to roughly $25,892 for every year that passed before he was acquitted last year.
It is the largest payout for a criminal case in Japan.
Iwao Hakamata visits a temple after he was acquitted on September 26, more than half a century after his murder conviction (JAPAN POOL/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)
On Twitter, one user criticized the payment as: “Not enough.”
Another wrote: “That’s very little compensation… insignificant.”
Hakamata, a former boxer, has always denied the crimes.
His request for a retrial was rejected in 1980.
His sister, Hideko Hakamata, filed a second appeal in 2008. She is now 91.
In 2014 a judge ordered a retrial after fresh evidence suggested investigators may have fabricated accusations.
Hakamata speaking as his 91-year-old sister Hideko holds the microphone (STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)
Although he was never acquitted earlier, officials allowed him to serve his sentence at home because of ill health.
Police also judged his advanced age made him a low escape risk.
In September last year, hundreds attended his hearing in Shizuoka, a coastal city about an hour by train from Tokyo.
The judge ruled he be acquitted, and the crowd celebrated.
Hakamata could not attend the court session because he had been excused due to a deteriorated mental state.
Hakamata pictured in 2018 (KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)
A central piece of evidence was blood-stained clothing police said he wore and hid in a tank of fermented soybean paste.
Defense lawyers and earlier retrial rulings found the blood samples did not match Hakamata’s DNA.
Prosecutors also presented trousers that appeared too small. They did not fit when Hakamata tried them on.
Despite this, prosecutors requested the death penalty in May last year, prompting calls for judicial reform.
On 26 September, a court found him not guilty.
“The court finds the defendant innocent,” Judge Koshi Kunii said at the time.