The Japanese man, who had been awaiting execution for 47 years, was awarded compensation of $1.44 million.

The district court of the Japanese prefecture of Shizuoka ordered the central government to pay compensation in the amount of ¥217 million (about $1.44 million) to 89-year-old Iwao Hakamate, who spent almost half a century in prison awaiting the death penalty before being found innocent. This was reported on March 25 by the Kyodo news agency, citing the man's lawyers.

Compensation was awarded for 47 years of "physical imprisonment" since his arrest in 1966 on charges of murdering the boss, his wife and two children. Khakamata confessed to the crime after 20 days of interrogation, but later stated that the testimony was given under torture.

In 2014, the court found that Khakamata's DNA did not match the genetic material found at the murder scene. In 2023, the Tokyo Supreme Court approved a retrial, and in September 2024, a court in Shizuoka finally acquitted the man, revealing three cases of falsification of evidence by the investigation.

A month later, the prosecutor's office refused to appeal the verdict, and Khakamata was fully rehabilitated. Now he will receive record compensation for his erroneous conviction.

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In November 2024, Manfred Gendicki, a German resident who served 13 years for a murder he did not commit, demanded 750,000 euros from the authorities. In 2008, a man was accused of murdering an elderly woman, whom he allegedly drowned in a bathtub in Rottach-Egern. He was convicted and spent more than 13 years in prison.

In July 2023, he was acquitted after new examinations showed that the woman's death was an accident, not murder.