Released man says lay judges would not have acquitted him

TOKYO, June 6 Kyodo -
A man freed from prison after a DNA test highly likely proved his innocence
said Saturday that citizen judges would not have acquitted him even if the
lay-judge system had been introduced by the time of his arrest.
''I think lay judges would have believed the result of the (initial) DNA test
and judged that I was guilty,'' said Toshikazu Sugaya, 62, who was released
Thursday after spending 17 years and six months in jail, during an interview
with Kyodo News.
''Even if the district court trial in my case was a lay judge trial, I don't
think I would have been acquitted,'' said Sugaya, who was given a life sentence
after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 4-year-old girl in
Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture in 1990.
The former driver of buses carrying kindergarteners said there is a need to
improve the accuracy of analyses used as evidence in criminal trials.
Under Japan's lay judge system, which started in late May, six citizen judges
and three professional judges will try serious criminal cases such as murder at
district courts.
The new system is aimed to reflect ''the sound social common sense of the
public'' more directly in judgments, according to a government judicial panel
which proposed the system.
Sugaya was convicted mainly based on the results of a DNA test conducted
shortly after the murder, when the accuracy of DNA analyses was much lower than
those used now. He was freed after a fresh DNA test conducted recently showed a
sample taken from him did not match dried body fluid found on the victim's
clothing.
Sugaya also said there is a need for introduction of a system to fully
audiotape and videotape the questioning of criminal suspects, as he says he was
forced by investigators to confess although he was innocent.
''I can never forgive (police officers and prosecutors) unless they apologize
to me, my parents and siblings...I also want the judges to apologize, too,'' he
said.
Japanese police and prosecutors have already started partial audio and video
recording of the questioning of criminal suspects on a trial basis.
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations, saying investigators' questioning
behind closed doors is a hotbed of a series of wrong convictions in Japan, has
called for enactment of a law requiring full visualization.
A bill intended to revise the Code of Criminal Procedure to realize full
visualization was introduced by the opposition camp in April. It has already
passed the opposition-controlled second chamber but no deliberations have taken
place in the more powerful House of Representatives.
Recalling his life in jail, Sugaya said there were times when he felt he would
never be able to get out, and also expressed joy for having been released by
saying, ''White rice is delicious.''
==Kyodo