New Japanese Magazine About Wrongful Convictions

The Japan Times has an article on an interesting new magazine that educates readers about fishy criminal cases. Here’s a short excerpt, which includes mention of a prominent case involving the conviction of a foreign man:

“Are there enough false-accusation cases to publish this magazine every three months? Unfortunately, yes,” Imai said. “There are many (cases) that are still buried or people who are enduring false accusations in bitter silence.”

Imai added, however, that there are very few legally judged wrongful convictions.

Consider the case of Govinda Prasad Mainali, a Nepalese man serving a life sentence for the 1997 murder of a 39-year-old woman who was an employee of Tokyo Electric Power Co. by day and a prostitute by night. The Tokyo District Court acquitted him in 2000, but the Tokyo High Court overturned the ruling and the Supreme Court upheld his sentence.

Throughout his imprisonment in Yokohama, Mainali has maintained his innocence and filed for a retrial in March 2005. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations took up his case and is giving him legal preparatory support.

Enzai File ran a 20-page analysis of the case, explaining what happened and going over evidence and issues discussed during the previous trials. It also provided an update on Mainali’s mother, wife and two daughters waiting for him in Nepal.

“The pain of having been found guilty of a crime that he or she did not commit, to be determined a criminal, is immense . . . not only for (the convicted) but also for the family members,” Imai said. “I wanted to shed light on how deep a false accusation affects the person and his or her family.”