“Investigators spent some ten hours on average for about 20 days to get his confession. They wouldn’t have been doing something so stupid if they had firm evidence,” Kumamoto, the judge, told The Associated Press. But an appeal to the Tokyo High Court and the Supreme Court failed to overturn the conviction.

The physical evidence also raises questions. When he tried on the pants that replaced the pajamas at his appeal, they didn’t fit him. The murder weapon, a fruit knife with a 4.8-inch (12.19-centimeter) blade, should have been more damaged if it had been used to inflict more than 40 stab wounds on the victims, the skeptics argue. “This is a typical case of finding an innocent man guilty of a false charge because the court trusts confessions made during investigations,” said Hideyo Ogawa, one of Hakamada’s lawyers.

Under the Japanese system, judges don’t disclose details of their consultations, and Kumamoto, now 70 and in retirement, has faced harsh criticism in legal circles for breaking the silence. “I wanted someone in the Supreme Court to hear me just once at the end of my life,” Kumamoto said. “I’m glad I spoke up. I wish I had said it earlier, and maybe something might have changed.”

Hakamada’s supporters hope the judge’s reversal will turn the tide. The Supreme Court has turned down a request for retrial, though his lawyers have resubmitted the petition for further consideration.

The Japan Pro Boxing Association hosted a charity event for Hakamada at a Tokyo gym in January, drawing nearly 1,300 people, according to organizers. Carter spoke in a videotaped message, saying, “It’s time to free Mr. Hakamada to show the people that you are a civilized society, and you can admit when a mistake has been made.”

But only four death row inmates have won acquittal on retrial since World War II, the last in 1989. One waited 33 years and four months before being exonerated in 1983.

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