EDITORIAL: Sugaya's acquittal

Toshikazu Sugaya was finally able to clear his name Friday after a long fight to prove his innocence in the murder of a 4-year-old girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, in May 1990. Sugaya, 63, was arrested in December 1991 and spent the next 17 and a half years deprived of his freedom.

On Friday, the judge of the Utsunomiya District Court offered a rare apology for the ordeal Sugaya suffered. But there is no way those lost years can be redeemed. Sugaya's acquittal came after the statute of limitations had expired in the case, meaning the true culprit was never brought to justice. How could the court have make such a mistake? Nothing less than a thorough vetting of the procedures must be undertaken.

Sugaya's guilt was determined by a confession he made under duress and a DNA test that was said to "match" samples at the crime scene. During Sugaya's retrial, the court did not accept the DNA data as evidence nor give credibility to his "confession."

Wrongful convictions result from placing too much emphasis on confessions and paying too little attention to the evidence. The so-called Ashikaga case is a typical example.

Sugaya said he confessed because he was "worn out" by relentless questioning. The interrogation method was so grueling, he said he decided just to acquiesce to what the investigators told him. In those days, DNA-type matching was a crude science. It had a degree of accuracy of only 1.2 in 1,000 people. Yet, nobody bothered to stand back and consider whether the DNA tests might be wrong.

Investigators should stick to the basics of verifying any confession with objective evidence, and not get carried away by what a suspect says. Nowadays, the accuracy of DNA testing has improved drastically. Even so, it would be ill-advised to rely too much on it.

Obtaining samples requires utmost care. Samples must be preserved under strict conditions in case of future reappraisal. Since the statute of limitations on murder cases will likely be abolished eventually, the preservation of DNA evidence will prove vital in the future.

It is also important to have both audio and visual recordings of interrogation procedures. Proposed legislation to legally require such steps be taken must be voted into law as soon as possible. The government should also consider allowing attorneys to be present at criminal interrogations.

There seems to be no end to cases of wrongful convictions. The National Police Agency and the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office are reviewing their procedures in an effort to prevent a future recurrence. A report on the Ashikaga case is due out soon. That in itself is commendable. But it's no more than an internal review. The court was fallible and overlooked errors in the investigation process. It would be difficult to review problem areas only through the legal framework of the "retrial."

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations issued an opinion paper prior to the acquittal, calling for the creation of an inquiry commission. As an independent, third-party public body, the panel would be tasked with determining the cause of the wrongful conviction as well as proposing changes to prevent similar mistakes from happening again.

We urge the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Court to take this proposal seriously and begin discussions among the three legal professions. The Diet and the various political parties should start working to get the proposed commission up and running.

With the participation of citizen judges in criminal court cases, expectations are high that the infusion of lay people's fresh sensibilities will help prevent wrongful convictions. Still, there is no guarantee that citizen judges will always be right. The creation of a new system that prevents wrongful convictions is imperative. That would be the best way of redeeming the wrongs our society wrought on Sugaya and all the other innocents who were wrongfully convicted for crimes they did not commit.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 27