Japan's Supreme Court has overturned a ruling blocking the retrial of an 84-year-old man who spent almost half a century on death row awaiting the hangman's call over the murder of a family of four, his lawyer told CNN Thursday.

Former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada -- declared the world's longest-serving death row inmate by Guinness World Records in 2014 -- was accused of robbery, arson and the murder of his boss, his boss' wife and their two children in 1966.

The family was found stabbed to death in their incinerated home in Shizuoka, central Japan.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/23/asia/japan-hakamada-ruling-death-row-intl-hnk/index.html