The Shizuoka District Court will announce on March 27 its decision on whether it will allow a retrial over a 1966 multiple murder case, defense lawyers said Thursday.
If the decision goes in favor of one-time professional boxer Iwao Hakamada, 78, it would mark only the sixth time a Japanese court has allowed a retrial of a death penalty case.
Hakamada was sentenced to death in 1968 for the murders of his employer at a soybean processing factory, his employer's wife and their two children. The ruling was upheld by the Tokyo High Court in 1976 and finalized by the Supreme Court in 1980.