The Japan Pro Boxing Association’s committee to support former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada, 84, who was convicted in a 1966 quadruple murder case in the central Japanese prefecture of Shizuoka, and supporting groups held joint rallies in downtown Tokyo on Dec. 11, appealing for his innocence and granting an amnesty to him.

The move is in line with the fact that Dec. 12 falls on the day in which the Supreme Court finalized Hakamada’s death sentence 40 years ago.

Joined by House of Councilors member Muneo Suzuki, committee head Shosei Nitta and other current and former boxing officials appealed for Hakamada’s innocence in Ginza and its vicinity areas.

They later visited the Justice Ministry and submitted a written request to the ministry’s National Offenders Rehabilitation Commission to seek amnesty while requesting an immediate reopening of the case to the Supreme Court.

Also joining the rally were Upper House member Mizuho Fukushima, Takako Suzuki of the House of Representatives and famous film director Masayuki Suo.

Although Hakamada was released from the Tokyo Detention House in 2014 under a district court ruling following a 48-year detention with the retrial of the case ordered, the Tokyo High Court rejected the reopening of the case in 2018.

Hakamada, who now lives in the prefecture’s Shimizu with his elder sister Hideko, has not been placed back in detention so far.

Hakamada, who was a former featherweight fighter, had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in which he is seeking exoneration.

According to the police, Hakamada stabbed to death four family members at a soybean paste shop in the prefecture on June 30, 1966 in an attempt to steal money, and them set fire to the shop after pouring gasoline on the bodies.

While Hakamada, an employee at the shop, confessed to having committed the crime after long police investigations, which is said to have gone on more than 12 hours a day, he later pleaded innocent in court testimony, claiming he made the confession under duress.

Hakamada is often seen as the Japanese equivalent of former world top middleweight contender Rubin ‘’Hurricane’’ Carter of the United States, who was held in prison for 19 years after being convicted of murdering three people in 1966.

The black American was formally acquitted of the charges in 1988 after the New Jersey States Public prosecutor’s Office retracted its appeal to a higher court.

The retraction came following a U.S. federal judge’s 1985 ruling that Carter, who has been serving a life sentence, was convicted based on racism and concealed evidence.