'World's Longest Prisoner': Japanese Death Penalty Confirmed After 58 Years

Japanese media reported that Japan's death row prisoner, who has been imprisoned for as many as 48 years after being named the culprit of the 1966 family murder, has been acquitted after 58 years.

Japanese prosecutors have announced that they will not appeal the acquittal of 88-year-old Hakamada Iwao, who was on death row, in a recent retrial.

"As a result, we have been in a situation where our legal status has been unstable for quite some time," Prosecutor General Naomi Unemoto said in a statement.

This is the fifth time since World War II that a death row prisoner has been found not guilty after a retrial in Japan.

All four previous cases were also not appealed by the prosecution.

Hideko Hakamada, elder sister of Iwao Hakamada, expressed her feelings after the announcement of the prosecution's statement, saying, "I feel like it's finally over."

Earlier, the Shizuoka District Court apologized on the 26th of last month, acknowledging that the prosecution's confession record and five pieces of clothing presented as evidence were fabricated, saying, "As a court, I am very sorry for taking so long."

Hakamada was accused of killing four family members at a soybean paste factory in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Honshu in 1966.

He pleaded not guilty during the trial, but the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty in 1980.

Hakamada was later released after the Shizuoka District Court decided to start a retrial in 2014 on the grounds that he was suspected of tampering with evidence.

As of 2010, Hakamada was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as "the longest imprisoned death row in the world."