New Zealand ยท Auckland, Papakura
Alan Hall: wrongly convicted, exonerated
Convicted of Murder of a man in Papakura in 1985.
Convicted1986
Years in prison19
ExoneratedJune 2022
How the conviction was overturnedSupreme Court quashed the conviction after the Crown accepted a miscarriage of justice because key evidence had been materially altered, Supreme Court of New Zealand1,2,3
What went wrong
- Official misconduct alleged, with a witness statement describing the attacker withheld from the defence and an altered version presented
- Evidence omitted from earlier appeals
From conviction to exoneration
- Convicted of murder by a jury.1
- The Supreme Court quashed his conviction after the Crown accepted that its failure to disclose the full statement of a witness, who had described a different attacker, led to a miscarriage of justice.1,3
- Cabinet agreed compensation of 4,933,725.75 New Zealand dollars.1
- In the High Court at Auckland, Justice Ian Gault found two former police officers not guilty of wilfully perverting the course of justice in the case, saying he could not be certain they knowingly took part.2
Compensation
4,933,725.75 New Zealand dollars agreed by Cabinet in August 2023, reported as the largest such payment in New Zealand
Today
Conviction quashed in 2022 and compensated in 2023. Two former officers charged over the case were acquitted in August 2026.
Sources
- Newstalk ZB, Alan Hall to get $5 million and apology for wrongful murder conviction (18 August 2023)
- 1News, Alan Hall case: Ex officers not guilty of perverting course of justice (12 August 2026)
- 1News, Alan Hall has murder conviction quashed after 36 years (8 June 2022)