The world’s longest-serving death row prisoner has been declared innocent after 56 years.

Iwao Hakamada was convicted in 1966 of the murder of his boss, the man’s wife and their two children.

Hakamada was working at a miso processing plant at the time when the bodies of the victims were found in their home, all with fatal stab wounds.

The former pro boxer denied the accusations that he had killed the family, however he later made what he claimed was a coerced confession and was sentenced to death row.

He spent 48 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit – making him the longest serving death row inmate.

After 27 years, the court finally denied his appeal for a retiral and he filed a second time in 2008.

Finally, in 2023, the court ruled in his favour and started proceedings for his retrial in October.

A huge point against Hakamada at the time had been blood stained clothes with were found a year after his arrest.

Investigators had claimed he had worn the clothes at the time of the crime but his defence legal team had said the blood samples did not match his DNA and that the clothes found were much too small to be his.

Incredible!