Japanese court acquits former boxer who spent 46 years on death row

Iwao Hakamada had been on death row for decades (Kyodo News/AP)

A Japanese court has found an 88-year-old former boxer not guilty of a 1966 quadruple murder, reversing an earlier wrongful conviction after decades on death row.

Iwao Hakamada’s acquittal by the Shizuoka District Court makes him the fifth death-row convict to be found not guilty in a retrial in post-war Japanese criminal justice.