Ashikaga Case
Poor DNA testing and Police
Poor DNA testing and secret design of police
Ashikaga case was the first one in which DNA testing was used as conclusive
evidence. In the other words, it was a so-called 'monumental' case in scientific
criminal investigation of Japan police force.
On 12th May 1990, a four-year-old girl went missing at Ashikaga city, Tochigi
Prefecture and the following morning she was found dead in a river terrace
nearby. This is gAshikaga Caseh.
In 1991 when DNA testing was done for Ashikaga case, the testing was able
to identify 1.2 persons out of 1,000. The assessment of the matching was
done not through computer analysis but only with eyes.
In fact, the DNA testing of Ashikaga case was very poor. It was done in
the National Police Agency affiliated organization, that is, the National
Research Institute of Police Science. For the testing, two samples were
necessary. One was from the body fluid on the victimfs clothes left at
the scene of the crime, and another was from the alleged murder suspect.
The former, the muddy victimfs clothes was picked out in the river and
then it had been preserved at room temperature, despite it should have
been preserved at minus 80 degrees centigrade and should be used within
one year. But it was used for the testing after one and a quarter year.
In addition, there was only slight amount of fluid on the clothes and it
was not nearly enough for DNA testing of the day.
The DNA testing using such a sample as the above was not based on the criteria
that the National Police Agency set for DNA testing at the time.
And moreover, the latter sample was from the garbage that the alleged murder
suspect Mr. Toshikazu Sugaya put at waste-collection point. A policeman
tailing him took it up and it was used for DNA testing even without search
warrant.
The National Police Agency themselves seemed to understand that there were
such inadequacies in the DNA testing done in their own affiliated organization.
But the National Police Agency seemed to leak deliberately the assessment
of the DNA typing to some of major newspapers, concealing all the above
inadequate process in the DNA testing. Why? Because at the time they wanted
to get the budget allocation (116 million yen) for installation of the
equipment for DNA testing in every prefectural police department all over
the country. They seemed to have an intention to use media for advertising
the value of gDNA testing.h
As they expected, the value of the DNA testing was highly publicized and
emphasized and then Mr. Sugaya was arrested before issuing arrest warrant.
Consequently, the National Police Agency got successfully the budget allocation,
which was rejected by the Finance Ministry before.
Forced confession and Testimony fabricated by police
Meanwhile, earlier, at Ashikaga city, in 1979 and 1984, two similar little
girl murder cases happened but those remained unsolved. Therefore, police
was desperate to arrest the criminal at any cost.
Mr. Sugaya says that police forced a confession to him by their physical
violence and threat continuously for many hours and finally he made up
a false confession led by police. Moreover, he was forced to confess the
earlier two similar murder cases and he made up a false confession about
those, too. His confession was not true and naturally it contradicted an
important testimony of an eyewitness of the murder case of 1979. According
to the eyewitness, in front of the eyewitness, the record of the testimony
was changed and fabricated by policemen and the eyewitness was constrained
to place a seal on and did so.
The aforementioned assessment of the DNA testing and his made-up confession
forced by police were considered as conclusive evidences in all courts.
All the defence line was rejected; his proclamation of innocence, discrepancies
between his forced made-up confession and facts found at the scene of the
crime, and his petition for disclosing the process of the DNA testing and
for the DNA re-testing were ignored.
Mr. Sugaya was sentenced to life in prison in Supreme Court on 17th July
2000.
DNA re-testing after 17 years
As already stated, the DNA testing done for Ashikaga case was very poor. Then, also the accuracy of DNA testing has greatly improved, and it is now 1 in 4.7 trillion according to the National Police Agency.