A defense attorney has made public part of a tape recording of confessions made by Mr. Toshikazu Sugaya, who was released on the strength of a new DNA test in June after he had served 17 years of a life sentence for the 1990 murder of a 4-year-old girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture. A retrial of Mr. Sugaya in this case is to start Wednesday.

The taped interrogations also concern two other, unsolved cases in which a 5-year-old girl was killed in 1979 and another girl of the same age was killed in 1984. Prosecutors questioned Mr. Sugaya after his indictment in the Ashikaga case, and the recording shows that on Dec. 7, 1992, he denied his involvement in all three cases.

In the first hearing of his trial (February 1992) before Utsunomiya District Court, he had admitted to murder in the Ashikaga case. The recording also shows that on Dec. 8 that year, an investigator, using results of the original DNA test, pressed Mr. Sugaya to accept the charge and that he did so in tears.

But in the sixth hearing of his trial, later in December 1992, he denied the charge. Then, in a written statement soon thereafter, he said his denial of the charge was false and, in a subsequent hearing, admitted to the charge. In late May 1993, he again insisted on his innocence in a letter to his lawyer; nevertheless, about a month later, the court handed down the life sentence.

In handing the recording to the defense counsel, prosecutors demanded that its contents not be made public, citing a provision in the Criminal Procedure Law that prohibits disclosure of evidence to a third party except during trial preparation. The defense counsel has made part of the recording public anyway. The government should consider revising the provision.

The prosecution is expected to oppose use of the recording as evidence at this week's retrial. But it should be used as such. The recording shows the prosecution's overconfidence in the original DNA test that cornered Mr. Sugaya. It's possible that the interrogations could show why Mr. Sugaya changed his plea. The recording as evidence would be of great value to the public and people in the legal profession, especially in view of the nation's adoption this year of the lay judge system.