JAPAN. PROSECUTORS APPEAL REOPENING CASE FOR DEATH ROW INMATE MASARU OKUNISHI

prosecutors in Japan filed an appeal against a ruling by the Nagoya High Court for a retrial of Masaru Okunishi, a death row inmate convicted of murdering five women in a wine poisoning case in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, in 1961.
Approving the seventh retrial application filed by the defense counsel for Okunishi, 79, Presiding Judge Junichi Koide said the court had serious doubts about the credibility of his confession and that new evidence submitted by the defense counsel had sufficient evidential power that may lead to an acquittal in a retrial.