@vibejapan1: In February 1992, two first-grade girls vanished on their way to school in Iizuka, Fukuoka. They were found dead the next day in the mountains. Two and a half years later, police arrested a local man, Michitoshi Kuma. This is why police said it was him. Witnesses saw a navy-blue Mazda van with double rear tires near where the girls disappeared and where their belongings were found. Kuma drove that same type of van. Fibers on the girls' clothing matched the seats of his van. Blood found on the girls matched his blood type. An early DNA test, called MCT118, said his DNA matched too. He had no alibi. Detectives later told NHK that none of the evidence was convincing on its own, but together it made a solid case. Kuma said he was innocent from the day he was arrested. He claimed police planted the blood traces found in his van. He was sentenced to death in 1999, and the Supreme Court upheld it in 2006. By 2008, the same DNA test was under fire in another child murder case. On October 28, 2008, Japan hanged Kuma. He was 70. His DNA was never retested. Months later, the retest in that other case came back: no match. That man, Toshikazu Sugaya, walked free after 17 years in prison. On September 24 this year, Kuma's lawyers said they had re-examined the police's own DNA testing. They say it shows the killer's DNA type never matched Kuma's. His family is now preparing a third request for a retrial. Did Japan hang an innocent man?

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Tuesday 06 October 2026 13:00:16 GMT