Sadamichi Hirasawa
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Sadamichi Hirasawa (平沢貞通 Hirasawa Sadamichi?, February 18, 1892 – May 10, 1987) was a Japanese painter who was sentenced to death, convicted of mass cyanide poisoning.
On January 26, 1948 a man calling himself Jiro Yamaguchi arrived in a branch of the Teigin Bank at Shiina, suburb of Tokyo, before closing time. He explained that he was a public health official sent by US occupation authorities who had orders to inoculate the staff against a sudden outbreak of dysentery. He gave all sixteen people present a pill and a few drops of liquid. Those present drank the liquid he gave, which was a cyanide solution. When all were incapacitated, the robber took all the money he could find, which amounted to 160,000 yen ($1392/£754). Ten of the victims died at the scene (one was a child of an employee) and two others were hospitalized.
He was eventually caught by the police due to the Japanese habit of exchanging cards with personal details. The real Dr. Yamaguchi contacted the police, and one of the cards in Yamaguchi's possession was that of Hirasawa, meaning the two had at one point exchanged cards. The police were also led to Hirasawa through the use of stolen checks.
He was identified by one of the survivors as the man who had given them the poison, marked by a scar under the murderer's chin. He was arrested August 1948. Hirasawa confessed (though he later recanted), and his later defense was based on partial insanity, but the court disagreed and Hirasawa was given the death penalty. His attorneys successfully had the sentence revoked because of a Japanese law that forbade people from suicide (the death penalty in Japan at the time called for hanging, and the lawyers argued that hanging was a form of self-strangulation).
His lawyers argued that the sentence was against the new Japanese constitution. Over the following years they submitted 18 pleas for retrial, but the Supreme Court of Japan upheld the death sentence in 1955. Hirasawa remained in prison for the next 33 years. He spent his time painting and writing his autobiography (My Will: the Teikoku Bank Case). The death sentence, however, was never carried out and he died in a prison hospital in 1987; shortly before that he was granted amnesty by the Emperor.
Even after Hirasawa's death, his son Takehiko Hirasawa has tried to clear his name. As of 2003, his lawyers have submitted new evidence to prove Hirasawa's innocence.
[edit] External references
- J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, The New Murderer's Who's Who, 1996, Harrap Books, London
- Sadamichi Hirasawa
- 19th bid to clear late murderer's name Sydney Morning Herald, July 12, 2003
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