FUKUOKA (Kyodo) The widow of a convicted child-killer hanged last year petitioned for a retrial Wednesday with the Fukuoka District Court, claiming faulty initial DNA test results railroaded a man who had professed his innocence to the end.
The DNA test that courts admitted as evidence in sentencing Michitoshi Kuma to death was conducted around the same time as that of Toshikazu Sugaya, who spent 17 years in prison until newer DNA testing technology effectively cleared him of a girl's slaying in Tochigi Prefecture.
Lawyers for Kuma's 62-year-old widow said they plan to demonstrate that initial DNA tests carried out on him were also defective, and unlike in Sugaya's case, samples taken in connection with the 1992 kidnap-slayings of two 7-year-old girls in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture, are unavailable for fresh analysis.