Govinda Prasad Mainali
The Govinda English website:
http://www.jca.apc.org/govinda/ENGLISH.html
JIADEP note: The Govinda Case is one of the worst decisions made by the Japanese judiciary. Found innocent of rape and murder by a lower court, Nepalese citizen Govinda, was convicted by the Tokyo High Court and sentenced to life imprisonment. A sentence that was confirmed by the Supreme Court.
As of July, 2011, DNA evidence has confirmed that the perpetrator was someone else. We call on the courts to reopen the case and rectify this miscarriage of justice.
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TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Tokyo District Court has endorsed paying about 68 million yen in compensation to a Nepali man who was wrongly detained and imprisoned in Japan for 15 years, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
Govinda Prasad Mainali, 46, was arrested on a charge of murdering a Japanese woman in 1997 and had his life imprisonment sentence finalized in 2003 before being cleared of the murder charge in a retrial last November.
Mainali had remained in prison until he was released upon a decision on his retrial last June.
May 24, 2013(Mainichi Japan)
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Tokyo High Court decided Thursday to reopen a high-profile murder case in which a 45-year-old Nepalese man was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a Japanese woman in 1997 in Tokyo, saying that a fresh DNA test points to his innocence.
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The results of the test are "clear evidence" indicating that Govinda Prasad Mainali should be acquitted, the court presided over by Judge Shoji Ogawa said.
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The focus of the court was a DNA analysis, which showed that the DNA of semen found inside the victim's body did not match that of Mainali but matched the DNA found in body hair collected at the apartment where the woman, an employee of Tokyo Electric Power Co., was murdered.
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The court's decision also said the fresh DNA test results have raised "reasonable doubt" about the finalized conviction and "raised suspicion" that another man, who has the same DNA type as that found inside the victim's body, is the real murderer.
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Additional analysis detected the same type of DNA on the victim's body, underwear and coat. No DNA evidence matching Mainali has been found.
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Based on the new findings, the defense lawyers for Mainali have argued that another man had been in final contact with the victim, calling for the guilty verdict handed to Mainali to be retracted. The final ruling said a third person could not have been at the apartment around the time of the murder.
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Prosecutors, for their part, have claimed the verdict should be maintained as the victim had sexual relations with a number of men and body hair found on the woman and her clothes may have been brought in from outside. They also cited other circumstantial evidence, such as the fact Mainali had a key to the apartment.
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He was initially acquitted by the Tokyo District Court in April 2000. The Tokyo High Court overturned the ruling eight months later and sentenced him to life imprisonment, with the decision upheld by the Supreme Court. Mainali filed a plea for retrial in 2005 with the high court.
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The murder case dates back to March 19, 1997, when the body of the woman, 39, was discovered in the apartment. Tokyo police arrested Mainali, a former restaurant employee and an acquaintance of the woman, in May on charges of robbery and murder.
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The DNA analysis was conducted by the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office at the request of his lawyers.
Mainali granted retrial, is let out of prison
DNA evidence of another man looks set to clear Nepalese
The Japan Times: Friday, June 8, 2012
By MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writer
The Tokyo High Court said Thursday it will retry Govinda Prasad Mainali, 44, a Nepalese man serving life in prison for the 1997 robbery-murder of a 39-year-old woman, because a DNA test in July contradicted the justification for its guilty verdict.
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The high court also said Thursday Mainali's sentence will be halted. He was later released from a Yokohama prison. He is expected to soon be placed in immigration custody for deportation, as he has been convicted of visa violations.
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"We would like to express respect to the high court's prompt and appropriate decision even though there was no room for doing otherwise," Mainali's attorneys said in a prepared statement. "Prosecutors should comply with the decision, for doing so is in compliance with prosecutors' philosophy: 'Prosecutors must not regard guilty verdicts as their purpose and heavy punishments as their achievement.' "
The Tokyo High Public Prosecutor's Office immediately filed an objection to the court's decision, with deputy chief Toshihiko Itami saying the decision was "totally unacceptable."
One of his lawyers quoted Mainali as saying, "I am glad I found a judge who believes my innocence and truth."
His wife, Radha, 42, expressed her gratitude at a news conference in Tokyo. His daughter, Alisha, 19, said the past 15 years were "very long and dark." They came to Japan with another of Govinda's daughters, Mithila, 21.
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The victim, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. employee whose name was withheld and who engaged in prostitution at night, was found dead March 19, 1997, in a vacant apartment in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. Mainali, who lived nearby, was arrested four days later on suspicion of overstaying his visa. He was later charged with murdering and robbing the woman, after police learned that Mainali was an acquaintance of hers, had a key to the flat and because a used condom found in the toilet at the scene contained semen that matched his DNA.
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The district court acquitted Mainali in April 2000 because prosecutors failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. A urologist also testified that the semen in the condom greatly predated the day of the slaying. The court added there were several unclear points, including two strands of hair found on the victim that came from a third party.
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However, when prosecutors appealed his acquittal, the Tokyo High Court found Mainali guilty in December 2000 and sentenced him to life behind bars even though no new evidence was presented. The high court said "it is difficult to think someone other than" Mainali brought her to the vacant apartment where she was slain and called his testimony unreliable.
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The Supreme Court finalized the sentence three years later.
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Mainali's coming retrial is based on DNA tests carried out on semen found in and on the victim. It was that of another man and matched the hair fibers.
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Prosecutors often appeal lower court-meted acquittals because they imply the case will be brought before a high or the Supreme Court, and thus do not violate the law against double jeopardy.
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Japan, like many nations, bans double jeopardy, but the judicial system considers district court, high court and Supreme Court trials of the same party for the same alleged offense to be separate trials, unlike in other countries where the verdict in the trial of first instance stands.
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"In the U.S., for example, if a jury finds a defendant not guilty, prosecutors are not allowed to appeal. I think this is basically correct because juries find reasonable doubt. Defendants should be found not guilty if reasonable doubt exists," said Shozaburo Ishida, one of Mainali's lawyers.
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The Japan Federation of Bar Associations routinely urges prosecutors not to appeal, member Manabu Sasamori said.
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The district court acquittal began looking proper when the results of a new DNA test conducted last July showed the semen found inside and on the woman was not that of Mainali.
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Mainali has maintained his innocence and was convicted with vague evidence. He has been seeking a retrial since 2005.
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Prosecutors reportedly found a sample of blood-type O saliva on the woman's chest, suggesting another man had been present in the apartment, but did not submit it as evidence in court. Mainali's blood type is B.
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Information from Kyodo added
New DNA tests eyed in '97 Tepco slaying as Nepal man seeks retrial
Monday, Sep. 5, 2011
Kyodo
Prosecutors plan to conduct new DNA tests in connection with the 1997 murder of a female Tokyo Electric Power Co. employee because a Nepalese man serving life in prison for the crime is seeking a retrial, a source said Sunday.
The Tokyo High Public Prosecutor's Office also plans to show the defense around 40 pieces of previously unreleased evidence, a move a senior prosecutor said signals "our intention to fully disclose what we can disclose, whether it benefits us or not."
"We also want to avoid being criticized for withholding evidence," the prosecutor said. The prosecutors notified the court and the defense counsel for Govinda Prasad Mainali, 44, of the plan on Friday.
The evidence the prosecutors plan to disclose includes a sample of what is believed to be a piece of skin taken from around the neck of the 39-year-old victim, who died of suffocation, and blood-type O saliva found on the victim's chest. Mainali's blood type is B. This apparently suggested another unidentified man had been in the victim's apartment at some point — although the high court ruling concluded it was unthinkable anyone other than the victim and Mainali entered the room.
In 1997, when the murder investigation was conducted, DNA analysis technology was apparently unavailable.
The prosecutors have recently analyzed 42 pieces of evidence at the request of the defense, including semen from inside the victim's body, her bag and wallet, and human hair.
The semen in her had a DNA profile different from Mainali's and perfectly matched the DNA profile of a hair collected in the apartment where the killing took place. The same profile was found in two separate hairs found at the scene.
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Tokyo District Court has endorsed paying about 68 million yen in compensation to a Nepali man who was wrongly detained and imprisoned in Japan for 15 years, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
Govinda Prasad Mainali, 46, was arrested on a charge of murdering a Japanese woman in 1997 and had his life imprisonment sentence finalized in 2003 before being cleared of the murder charge in a retrial last November.
Mainali had remained in prison until he was released upon a decision on his retrial last June.
May 24, 2013(Mainichi Japan)