A district court denied a retrial Wednesday for a 95-year-old woman who served 10 years in prison for the 1979 murder of her brother-in-law in Kagoshima Prefecture.
It was the fourth attempt by Ayako Haraguchi to clear her name, with presiding Judge Masato Nakata saying that the new evidence presented by the defense was "not clear" enough to acquit her.
Two previous claims for a retrial were approved by district courts but later rejected by upper courts. Haraguchi's lawyers said they will prepare to appeal the Wednesday decision to the Miyazaki branch of the Fukuoka High Court.