<p>Tokyo: A Japanese man said to have spent the world's longest time on death row was acquitted of murder on Thursday, broadcaster <em>NHK</em> said, ending his family's search for justice after a wrongful conviction for crimes committed nearly 60 years ago.</p><p>The Shizuoka district court cleared Iwao Hakamada, 88, in a retrial of the murders of four people in the central Japanese region in 1966, <em>NHK</em> said.</p><p>Hakamada spent 45 years on death row before a court ordered his release and a retrial in 2014 amid doubts about the evidence that formed the basis for his conviction.</p><p>The former boxer was accused of stabbing to death his former boss and family before burning down their home.</p><p>Though he briefly admitted to the killings, he retracted the confession and pleaded innocent during his trial, but was nevertheless sentenced to death in 1968, a penalty upheld by Japan's Supreme Court in 1980.</p>.World's first 3D-printed hotel takes shape in Texas.<p>Norimichi Kumamoto, one of the three judges at the Shizuoka court who had sentenced Hakamada to death, petitioned the Supreme Court for a retrial in 2008, but the plea was rejected.</p><p>Hakamada's lawyers had argued that DNA tests on bloodstained clothing said to be their client's showed the blood was not his.</p><p>Since his release, Hakamada has lived with his older sister Hideko, who battled for decades to clear his name.</p><p>Rights group Amnesty International hailed the exoneration as a "pivotal moment for justice" and urged Japan to scrap the death penalty.</p><p>"After enduring almost half a century of wrongful imprisonment and a further 10 years waiting for his retrial, this verdict is an important recognition of the profound injustice he endured for most of his life," Amnesty said.</p><p>"It ends an inspiring fight to clear his name," it added in a statement.</p>
<p>Tokyo: A Japanese man said to have spent the world's longest time on death row was acquitted of murder on Thursday, broadcaster <em>NHK</em> said, ending his family's search for justice after a wrongful conviction for crimes committed nearly 60 years ago.</p><p>The Shizuoka district court cleared Iwao Hakamada, 88, in a retrial of the murders of four people in the central Japanese region in 1966, <em>NHK</em> said.</p><p>Hakamada spent 45 years on death row before a court ordered his release and a retrial in 2014 amid doubts about the evidence that formed the basis for his conviction.</p><p>The former boxer was accused of stabbing to death his former boss and family before burning down their home.</p><p>Though he briefly admitted to the killings, he retracted the confession and pleaded innocent during his trial, but was nevertheless sentenced to death in 1968, a penalty upheld by Japan's Supreme Court in 1980.</p>.World's first 3D-printed hotel takes shape in Texas.<p>Norimichi Kumamoto, one of the three judges at the Shizuoka court who had sentenced Hakamada to death, petitioned the Supreme Court for a retrial in 2008, but the plea was rejected.</p><p>Hakamada's lawyers had argued that DNA tests on bloodstained clothing said to be their client's showed the blood was not his.</p><p>Since his release, Hakamada has lived with his older sister Hideko, who battled for decades to clear his name.</p><p>Rights group Amnesty International hailed the exoneration as a "pivotal moment for justice" and urged Japan to scrap the death penalty.</p><p>"After enduring almost half a century of wrongful imprisonment and a further 10 years waiting for his retrial, this verdict is an important recognition of the profound injustice he endured for most of his life," Amnesty said.</p><p>"It ends an inspiring fight to clear his name," it added in a statement.</p>