An 88-year-old Japanese man who at one point was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been presented with a rosary blessed by Pope Francis.
Archbishop Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo recently visited Iwao Hakamada, a former boxer and convert to Catholicism, to make the presentation of the papal gift to the now officially innocent octogenarian.
Following his release from prison in 2014 because of new DNA evidence – after 48 years on death row – Hakamada still wasn't officially proclaimed innocent until his definitive acquittal a decade later.
