After the Supreme Court upheld Masumi Hayashi's death sentence in April, the Wakayama Curry Murder Case became history. As far as the media is concerned, there is nothing left to talk about until her sentence is carried out, even though serious doubts remain about the prosecution's evidence, which was all circumstantial, not to mention the judges' willingness to pass sentence based on the idea that "no one else could have done it." More significantly, the people of the Sonobe district of Wakayama, where four people died on July 25, 1998, after eating curry laced with arsenic at a community festival, seem to want to forget the tragedy. So why prolong the victims' suffering?
This attitude became indefensible last week with the release from prison of 62-year-old Toshikazu Sugaya, who was convicted of the 1990 murder of a 4-year-old girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, and given a life sentence. His lawyers, who questioned the accuracy of the only evidence in the case, which was based on DNA tests that matched Sugaya to bodily fluids found on the dead girl's clothing, submitted to the Tokyo High Court newer DNA tests results that showed there is no match. Their purpose was to have Sugaya's case reopened, and prosecutors have since decided not to seek a guilty verdict, thus effectively declaring Sugaya innocent after 17 years behind bars.
It was only thanks to his lawyers' relentlessness that Sugaya was able to gain his freedom, but the press had mostly ignored their efforts. Now, they're all over it. TBS, for example, put together an excellent overview of the case for its weekend newsmagazine "Tokuho Tokushu Next" that explained the details with bracing clarity. It's too bad they didn't do it sooner.