back in the direction of the town and his home, where he tied a rope around her ankles and lowered it headfirst into a hole. The confession explicitly states that Ishikawa carried the body in front of him the entire distance, without slinging it over his shoulder. The defense team has conducted several experiments whereby strong young men try to carry a body weighing along the same path. Not one of these men was able to carry this weight for anywhere near the entire distance. A coroner has also testified that if a fresh corpse were lowered into a hole by a rope tied around the ankles, there would be marks left around the ankles. No such marks were found. There were a number of footprints found at both the supposed murder scene and where the body was found. However, none of these match Ishikawa's. These discrepancies and inconsistencies have been presented to the Tokyo High Court by the Sayama Legal Defense Team as part of the third appeal for a retrial of the case. See also Iwao Hakamada Data Base of Wrongful Convictions in Japan Notes References External links Timeline of the Sayama Case A detailed timeline of the Sayama Incident Burakumin May 1963 events in Asia Murder in Japan 1963 murders in Japan