免田栄さん死去　元死刑囚、初の再審無罪

　１９４８年に熊本県人吉市で一家４人が殺傷された「免田事件」で、日本の裁判史上初めて死刑確定後に再審無罪となった免田栄（めんだ・さかえ）さんが５日午前、老衰のため福岡県大牟田市内の高齢者介護施設で死去した。９５歳だった。熊本県出身。葬儀は６日午後１時から同市沖田町１３５の１の白雲社南大牟田ホールで、家族葬で行う。喪主は妻玉枝（たまえ）さん。
　４８年１２月、人吉市の祈とう師一家４人が何者かに襲われて両親が殺害され、子供２人も重傷を負った。４９年１月、警察は免田さんを別件で逮捕。その後、強盗殺人容疑で再逮捕し、激しい取り調べの末、犯行を「自白」させた。
　免田さんは公判途中から否認に転じたが、一審熊本地裁八代支部は５０年３月、死刑を言い渡し、最高裁が５１年１２月に上告を棄却、確定した。
　しかし、６回にわたる再審請求の末、７９年９月に福岡高裁が再審開始を決定。検察側の特別抗告も棄却されて再審が始まり、８３年７月、熊本地裁八代支部は再審公判の判決で、免田さんのアリバイを認めて無罪を言い渡した。免田さんは判決直後に釈放。逮捕から３４年以上が経過していた。
　無罪確定後は、他の確定死刑囚らの再審支援に奔走し、死刑制度廃止を訴えた。免田さんの無罪をはじめとして、８０年代には財田川、松山、島田各事件で確定死刑囚の再審無罪が相次いだ。
　釈放後に知り合った玉枝さん（８４）と結婚し、畑作業が日課だった。２０１８年から介護施設で生活。玉枝さんによると、最近はほとんど会話できなかったという。（2020/12/05-20:42）

Sakae Menda, the first person in Japan's history of trials who was acquitted in a retrial held after a finalized death sentence, died of old age at an elderly care facility in the city of Omuta in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka on Saturday. He was 95.
   In December 1948, a couple in the city of Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, were killed, and their two children were severely injured. In January 1949, Menda, a native of Kumamoto, was arrested over a different case. Police rearrested him later, on suspicion of robbery and murder, and forced him to admit that he committed the crime in Hitoyoshi.
   Menda started to deny the allegations during his trial. But in March 1950, the Yatsushiro branch of Kumamoto District Court sentenced Menda to death. The ruling was finalized by the Supreme Court in December 1951.
   In September 1979, Fukuoka High Court decided to reopen the case, acting on a sixth petition for a retrial from the Menda side. In the retrial, launched after an appeal from public prosecutors was rejected, the Yatsushiro branch of the Kumamoto court in July 1983 confirmed Menda's alibi and ruled that he was innocent. Menda was released soon after the ruling, more than 34 years after his arrest.
   After the acquittal ruling was finalized, Menda worked hard to support other death-row inmates for their retrials and toured around the country to call for the abolition of capital punishment. He also attended a meeting held at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York to demand that death penalty be scrapped. In the 1980s, three more death-row convicts in Japan were acquitted in their respective retrials.