JAPANESE MAN RELEASED FROM DEATH ROW SPEAKS AGAINST DEATH PENALTY AT UN

Sakae Menda, a man freed from death row more than 24 years ago in Japan, called on member states at the United Nations to end the world's use of the death penalty as punishment. ''I strongly believe in… abolishing the death penalty due to the danger of falsely convicting the innocent.'' Now 81, Menda recalled the horror of being accused of murdering and injuring a family of four in Hitoyoshi City in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1948. Not only was he coerced into a confession, but in court key evidence supporting his alibi was ignored and false witness testimony was given. His lawyer offered no professional expertise to help him fight the false charges. Menda explained the daily torture of living in fear that ''you may be sent to your death at any given month, day or moment'' as Japan does not inform inmates of their executions except on the morning that the sentence is to be carried out. Finally after filing six petitions for a retrial and spending more than 30 years in prison, Menda was freed July 15, 1983, but saw at least 56 fellow inmates be sent to their deaths at the Fukuoka Detention Center and believed some of them to have been wrongly convicted as well. ''Being on death row dehumanizes and has a massive psychological effect on a person,'' he said. ''It's an awful penalty to inflict on anyone, and is even more devastating for someone who is innocent.''