Media persons of the year: Toshikazu Sugaya and Atsuko Muraki
Toshikazu Sugaya's 1992 conviction for the murder of a little girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, was reviewed by judges in 2009 after years of pleading by his defense team, which claimed the DNA evidence that sent him to jail for life was inaccurate. The reporters who covered the case over the years never questioned this evidence until the Tochigi district court allowed for a new trial, which resulted in overturning the earlier guilty verdict last March. Sugaya received an apology from the bench but not from prosecutors.
Atsuko Muraki didn't have to wait 17 years for vindication. An official with the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, Muraki was accused of allowing an organization to misuse a mail discount system for the disabled. In September, judges dismissed evidence submitted by prosecutors, saying it was unconvincing. Afterward, the head prosecutor in the case was indicted for tampering with evidence, an accusation he eventually owned up to.