BBC News - Outcry over Japan's forced confessions
The story of a hacker who let the media know that the police had prosecuted 2 innocent people, and had forced (false) confessions out of them - has got people asking questions.
Certainly would not be the first time innocent people got railroaded in Japan. Remember Toshikazu Sugaya?
Ashikaga murder case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I don't remember if a false conviction was tortured out of him or not, but the relation to this thread is, yeah, people questioned and people talked. Now its actually difficult to find information about that shameful case. Its not here:
List of miscarriage of justice cases - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In fact if you do a web search of his name, its hard to find anything direct about him now. He is almost forgotten.
As has been said, this sort of thing happens everywhere. But I do believe that Japan has a particular problem. I find the police and the justice system here to be philosophically shallow on the idea of justice, although they are profound on the subject of social order. I would happily trade some social order for more intelligent attitudes toward justice.
Do you trust the police? (in Japan or where you are)
I do not trust the police here in Japan, or other authorities. Not anywhere in fact, but especially in Japan, and that has a lot to do with the above. If you walk into a Japanese police station or court, you are a number to them, as well as a problem for them to solve, rather than a human being with rights. If you are a foreigner, there is a high probability that that will be a black mark against you, and of course that probability increases with the number of police, prosecutors, judges etc you have to deal with.
Crap happens in America too, but at least there is a pretty solid philosophy of justice there to fall back on. Not all people subscribe, but its better that its there.
Can a confession procured under duress really be reliable?
The trouble with that nugget is you are ALWAYS under duress. Drug into a police interrogation room is already duress even if they don't torture you with sleep deprivation, verbal abuse and harassment. But you will get the whole shebang.
But that does not matter directly to the question so much. People lie in any case. You can never be 100 percent sure of anything with only words as evidence.
People not only lie to protect themselves, they also lie to protect others, sometimes even when those others have completely screwed them. A man may lie to protect the woman he loves, even if she scorns him, even if she is the one who is falsely accusing him. You never REALLY know when the only evidence is words.
What should the limit of duress be?
I think the police can hold you for three weeks with absolutely nothing. It should be more like 24 hours. I could go for a few days house arrest on top of that. However, one's job should NEVER be in jeopardy, and that should be written into law.
I bet lots of people left their 3 weeks custody jobless who were perfectly innocent.
how would you measure this?
Hard to do. For some, 24 hours of interrogation would be like water off a duck's back. For others, just being drug into the police station and all their neighbors knowing would be extreme duress, especially if perfectly innocent. Japanese people (neighbors) are really ignorant about the concept of innocent until proven guilty. No nationality is perfect, but Japanese are the pits on that philosophy.
