Japan executes three death-row inmates

For decades, authorities have told death row inmates they will be executed just hours before the procedure is carried out — a process that two inmates have argued is illegal and causes psychological distress. The pair are suing the government over the system, and are also seeking compensation of ¥22 million for the distress caused by living with uncertainty about their execution date. Documents and news archives show that Japan used to give death row inmates more notice, but stopped around 1975. In December 2020, Japan's top court overturned a ruling blocking the retrial of a man described as the world's longest-serving death row inmate, raising new hope for the now 85-year-old. Iwao Hakamada has lived under a death sentence for more than half a century after being convicted of robbing and murdering his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children.

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