“‘Mr. Miyata might have made up the story,’ presiding Judge Yoshihisa Mizokuni said in the court decision, adding his confessions could have been the result of ‘adjusting’ to the views of investigators.”
Kumamoto has been the site of several cases involved confessions that were later shown to have been forced. The most famous is that of MENDA Sakae:
“In 1983, after 80 judges had been involved in Menda’s half-a-lifetime of struggle, a court finally acknowledged the police had concealed his alibi that he was not at the scene of the crime. With that, Menda — by then 54 years old — became the first person to ever escape Japan’s death row (three others, all tortured into confessing, have since been released).”
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2007/04/08/to-be-sorted/one-who-has-lived-to-tell-the-tale/
– Kirk
