The Shizuoka District Court decided Thursday to reopen a high-profile 1966 murder case that kept a former professional boxer on death row for more than 30 years for killing four members of a family.

Later in the day, Iwao Hakamada, 78, was released from the Tokyo Detention House after 48 years behind bars. The court also decided to suspend his death penalty.

In the decision, presiding Judge Hiroaki Murayama approved DNA test results that indicated the DNA type from bloodstains detected on five items of clothing believed worn by the culprit differed from Hakamada's.