buttress
１９６６年に静岡県清水市で起きた「袴田事件」の第２次再審請求審で、袴田巌死刑囚（７６）が犯行時に着ていたとされた衣類の信用性を巡ってDNA鑑定が行われたました。その結果、鑑定人が「袴田死刑囚に完全に一致するＤＮＡは認められなかった」としていたことを弁護団が明らかになりました。この鑑定結果が再審請求審に影響を与えることになります。
buttressは「支える、頼りにする」という意味で、元々は教会で使用された「扶壁」（buttressed retaining wall）、つまり「控え壁、（建築、山岳用語で）バットレス」という名詞に由来します。そこから動詞で、「（人・計画などを〉支持する、（…で）強化する」という意味で用いられるようになりました。（UG）
Hakamada appeal bid buttressed by DNA test
Kyodo
SHIZUOKA — DNA analysis of a blood-stained shirt believed to have been worn by the killer of a family of four in 1966 has not found any genetic material from the man convicted of the crime, his lawyers said Monday.
The blood on the shirt was believed to have come from Iwao Hakamada, 76, after he allegedly sustained injuries to his right shoulder at the time of the crime.
But the results of the latest DNA test, commissioned by prosecutors, undermines the evidence linking him to the murders and will strengthen the retrial argument that he was wrongfully accused.
Hakamada, a former professional boxer, was sentenced to death in 1968 by the Shizuoka District Court for the slayings of an executive of a miso maker he was employed by, the executive's wife and their two children, in Shizuoka Prefecture in a trial that became known as the "Hakamada Case."
