A new fact has come to light involving the retrial of Hakamada Iwao, who has been sentenced to death but has been pleading innocent for a murder case that occurred more than half a century ago.

NHK has learned that Murayama Hiroaki, who was a presiding judge at the Shizuoka District Court in 2014, made a rare move of submitting a statement to a higher court 9 years ago. It opposed an appeal by prosecutors against a retrial for Hakamada, who was convicted of killing a family of four in 1966.

Murayama was the presiding judge when the Shizuoka court approved Hakamada's retrial. Hakamada was then released. But prosecutors appealed to the Tokyo High Court to repeal the ruling. The high court overturned the decision.

The statement obtained by NHK shows that Murayama gave concrete reasons and used strong expressions in his writing. He wrote that prosecutors were not making new arguments but were talking about what had already been examined. He added that they were not making any effective counterarguments at all.

Murayama made the rare move to oppose the prosecutors' appeal in the hope of preventing the court proceedings from dragging on.

In his first TV interview with NHK, Murayama said that he wrote the statement because he wanted an early start of a retrial for Hakamada's sake. He said he deeply regrets what has happened to Hakamada and his sister, Hideko.

Murayama expressed hope that Hakamada will be liberated from the death penalty and become a truly free person soon, as his sister wishes.

In March, the 87-year-old Hakamada was again granted a retrial. The hearing started last week.