Toshikazu Sugaya, freed from prison last week after new DNA testing indicated his innocence in the slaying of a young girl, says he would have been found guilty even if the lay judge system had been in effect for his trial.
"I think lay judges would have believed the result of the (initial) DNA test and judged that I was guilty," said Toshikazu Sugaya, 62, who was released Thursday after spending 17 1/2 years behind bars.
"Even if the district court trial in my case was a lay judge trial, I don't think I would have been acquitted," said Sugaya, who was sentenced to life when he was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Mami Matsuda, a 4-year-old girl, in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, in 1990.