Sakae Menda

was a Japanese man who was wrongfully convicted of a double-homicide and sentenced to death in 1949, but was later exonerated by retrial in 1983. This was the first time anyone was ever released from death row by retrial in Japan. He was a leading figure in Japan for the movement to abolish the death penalty.

Background On December 30, 1948, an unknown killer broke into the house of a 76-year-old Buddhist priest and his 52-year-old wife in the city of Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, murdered them using an axe and a knife, and wounded their two young daughters, aged 12 and 14; during this time. In January 1949, Menda, a poor and illiterate farmhand who also sold rice on the black market, was arrested after being accused of stealing rice. He was released, but soon after re-arrested on suspicion of the murder.

Arrest and trial Police held Menda in their custody for 23 days.

Life after release

The government gave Menda ¥700 for every day he was in prison: 90 million yen in total (approximately 2009 USD $990,540). He donated half of that to a group campaigning to abolish the death penalty. Menda also became a death-penalty abolitionist after his release. Japan and the United States are the only members of the Group of Seven industrialised nations to retain capital punishment. Menda spoke at the 2007 World Congress against the death penalty, The scandal in the aftermath of Menda's release prompted reform and aided a reintroduction of jury trials in Japan, as well as showing the Japanese legal system's over-reliance on conviction by means of confession.

Menda had difficulty claiming his state pension as he had been unable to sign up during his time in prison.

After his release, he criticised Japan's execution policy, and tried to bring an end to the practice in Japan.

He died of natural causes on December 5, 2020, aged 95, in a nursing home in Ōmuta, Fukuoka prefecture.

Documentary film and book A documentary movie, Menda Sakae: Gokuchu no Sei (Sakae Menda: A Life in Prison), detailing Sakae's life on death row, was released in 1998. In 2004, Menda released a book, Gokuchu noto (Prison Notes).