Sakae Menda
Sakae Menda ( Japanese 免 田 栄 , Menda Sakae ; * 1925 in Menda (today: Asagiri ), Kuma County , Kumamoto Prefecture , Japan ) is a former Japanese death row inmate and is now an activist against the death penalty.
biography
Indictment and conviction
On December 30, 1948 Priest and his wife at their home in were Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu with a knife and an ax murdered. The two young daughters of the family were wounded by the perpetrator who broke into the house. On January 13, 1949, the then 23-year-old, destitute, uneducated farm worker Sakae Menda was arrested.
The police held Menda without giving him access to legal assistance. During the interrogations that were taking place, he was forced to confess through deprivation of food, sleep, and torture . After Menda signed the confession submitted by the police, he was eventually sentenced to death in an unfair trial in March 1950 for the forced confessions, disregard of his alibi and false testimony. On December 25, 1951, the judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court . As a result of the trial, Menda was rejected by his parents.
Detention and retrial
Menda was now detained in Fukuoka Prison in a five-square-meter, unheated, solitary cell that was lit day and night and was under constant surveillance. He now spent the years waiting for his unannounced execution every day. During this time, he saw dozens of fellow inmates being picked up to carry out their sentences.
During his incarceration, Menda converted to Christianity , began reading the Bible and translating books into Braille . In 1979, after a total of six retrial requests , the Fukuoka High Court ordered the case to be re-examined. On July 15, 1983, a court finally recognized that the police had been hiding Menda's alibi and acquitted him in a court verdict. Menda, now 57 years old, was the first death row inmate to be released in Japan. For the time he was innocently detained, Menda received 7,000 yen a day from the government , which equates to 90 million yen. He donated half of the money to an organization that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty. With the rest of the money, Menda paid attorneys who had supported him over the years, leaving him with a third of the original amount.
Since his release, Menda, now married, has been campaigning against the death penalty. In 2004 he published his autobiography Gokuchū noto ( 獄中 ノ ー ト , "Notes in custody"). As early as 1998, Masato Koike Menda's story was filmed as a documentary under the title Gokuchū no Sei (English Sakae Menda: A Life in Prison ).
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Menda, Sakae |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 免 田 栄 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese activist against the death penalty |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Menda (now Asagiri ), Kuma County , Kumamoto Prefecture |