Alan Hall was convicted for the murder of Arthur Easton in 1985. His conviction, which was later overturned, has been described as one of New Zealand's worst miscarriages of justice.A brother’s 36-year fight against one of New Zealand’s worst miscarriages of justice, The Guardian, 15 June 2022. In August 2023, the Government agreed to pay him $5 million in compensation, the largest nominal payout for wrongful conviction in New Zealand history.Alan Hall to get $5m compensation for wrongful murder conviction, Stuff, 18 August 2023.
Easton and his two teenage sons were attacked in their home by an intruder with a Swiss bayonet. All three were stabbed during the incident and Arthur Easton bled to death shortly thereafter. The intruder was described by Easton's sons and other witnesses as Māori, tall and strong.Man who spent 19 years in jail for murder was wrongfully convicted, Crown admits, Stuff.co.nz. 7 June 2022. When police spoke to Hall during their investigation he admitted he used to own a bayonet. Police then interrogated him without a lawyer. Hall's autism disorder was undiagnosed at the time. Under pressure from the police, he gave conflicting information about what had happened to his bayonet.
There was no evidence linking Alan Hall to the scene of the crime. At the trial the police suppressed testimony from Easton's children that the intruder was Māori and failed to call a witness who said he saw a Māori man running away from the house. The police altered the written statement from this witness leaving out the reported ethnicity from the statement, while adding other erroneous incriminating information about Alan Hall into the statement. Police failed to disclose to the defence information about another suspect.
Aged 23, Hall was found guilty and given a life sentence. He was released on parole after nine years, but was recalled in 2012 after breaching one of his parole conditions. He was released again in March 2022. He spent 19 years in prison overall. The Supreme Court of New Zealand acknowledged a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred and overturned his conviction on 8 June 2022. In 2024, two police officers and a prosecutor were charged with perverting the course of justice, and a reward of $100,000 was offered for information leading to the conviction of the real murderer.
Background Arthur Easton and his two teenage sons, Brendan and Kim, were attacked in their home in Papakura, New Zealand on 13 October 1985. Brendan, aged 16 at the time, was in his bedroom studying when he heard a noise at the back door. When he went to investigate, he found an intruder had broken in. An altercation occurred and Brendan screamed for help. His father was in the lounge watching television and came rushing out. His older brother, Kim also joined in the struggle. During the incident, Arthur Easton was stabbed with a bayonet multiple times. Eventually, the offender fled, but left behind a bayonet stained with blood, a wool beanie, and a muddy footprint as evidence. Mr Easton bled to death in the hallway half an hour later. His sons were both injured but survived.Grove Road: A Sunday murder and an unlikely suspect, Newshub, September 2018
Easton's sons described their attacker to police as a strong, six-foot Māori man, who did the stabbing with his right hand. Another eyewitness said to police that he saw someone running away from the home and gave the man's ethnicity as being Māori.Alan Hall's murder conviction quashed after 37 years, RNZ, 8 June 2022 Two months later Alan Hall became a suspect after police spoke with him when they were door knocking in the area looking for information. Hall acknowledged he had been out walking in an area located 1.5 km from the crime scene that night and owned a bayonet and beanie which matched the ones found at the crime scene.Alan Hall: Murder conviction set to be quashed after decades, Crown acknowledges miscarriage of justice, NZ Herald, 7 June 2022
Hall is European, in height, and had asthma. He was described at the time as "simple and intellectually backward".A case gone badly wrong, New Zealand Listener, 21–27 May 2022. His mother described him as frail, awkward and shy. At the trial, the two Easton boys who had been attacked did not identify Hall as the intruder, and none of the eyewitness reports of whoever fled the scene matched his description. His finger prints were not found at the scene nor on the bayonet. Nevertheless, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Hall was paroled in November 1994 until being recalled. Recall Hall was paroled in November 1994 until being recalled to prison in 2012 after concerns were raised by police and his probation officer that he had been filming rugby league matches and other sporting fixtures – even though this was done with the school’s permission. For the next ten years, prison authorities insisted he complete an intensive child sex offender treatment programme.Man controversially convicted of murder to be released from prison, Stuff.co.nz. 24 February 2022 Hall objected to this, saying he didn't understand why it was necessary. As a result, he was refused parole numerous times. In 2019, Hall received a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and expert testimony indicated that this may explain some of his behaviour. The Parole Board took this into account and decided his risk of reoffending was very low and released him for a second time, on 2 March 2022.
Conviction overturned Over the 19 years he spent in prison, Hall maintained he was innocent and appealed his conviction five times. This included three requests for a pardon under the royal prerogative of mercy. As the years went by, a new investigative team, including Tim McKinnel (who helped free Teina Pora), helped to uncover the actions and omissions of the police that led to Hall’s conviction.Convicted murderer in controversial case appeals again after 35 years, Stuff.co.nz. 21 January 2021. Based on these findings, in January 2022, Hall appealed to the Supreme Court. His conviction was finally overturned in June 2022, three months after he had been released on parole. At the hearing, his lawyer Nick Chisnall said: "It is indisputable that Mr Turner’s statement was intentionally altered. Evidence was tampered with to ensure it conformed with the Crown's theory of the case, that Mr Hall was the murderer. This was grave misconduct."
Subsequent failures by the Crown In 1987, two years after the murders, Hall appealed his conviction with the help of defence lawyer, Peter Williams. The appeal was unsuccessful. Later, Hall's legal team uncovered information to help evidence a miscarriage of justice following an official information requestAlan Hall case: Investigation into Crown lawyers to ensure public confidence, says Solicitor-General, RNZ, 13 July 2022
The Ministry of Justice Four years later Williams presented an application for the Royal prerogative of mercy, providing proof that witness statements had been doctored and concealed by the police. Williams was described as “shattered and disbelieving” that the Ministry of Justice and the Crown simply ignored this new information.'It should never have happened': How everyone turned a blind eye to Alan Hall's wrongful conviction, Stuff, 19 June 2022
Investigation by Bryan Bruce In 2009, documentary maker Bryan Bruce investigated Hall’s case. Lawyer Gary Gotlieb told the Star-Times that after Bruce's documentary aired,True Crime Investigation: Falsely Convicted – the case of Alan Hall, YouTube, 17 June 2021 people came forward with more information, including former police officers concerned about how the case was handled. One officer contacted Bruce anonymously suggesting Hall had been "set up" because Police wanted a quick result. He said some police officers believed they knew who the real killer was and that he had got away with it.Group asks for murder case review, Stuff, 26 August 2009 Bruce concluded his broadcast saying that the "engineering of a false statement to go before the jury, and dubious experiments to change witness evidence, were the most blatant example of official tampering he had ever seen".
Investigation by Mike Wesley-Smith In 2018, the Hall family, invited journalist Mike Wesley-Smith to look through numerous boxes containing records of the family’s lengthy fight to clear Alan’s name. Information in the boxes not only showed that Hall was highly unlikely to have been the murderer, it also showed the authorities had known for 30 years that his conviction was unsafe, but had done nothing about it. Wesley-Smith documented his findings in a podcast called Grove Road in 2018.Murder on Grove Rd, Newshub He also approached the Ministry of Justice suggesting they take another look at the case. The Ministry had already rejected three previous applications by Hall, and refused to act. Wesley-Smith said the Ministry displayed "a complete absence of concern".
In 2018, former Detective Senior Sergeant Kelvin McMinn, told Wesley-Smith that the incriminating alterations to Ronald Turner’s statement were made on the advice of the Crown prosecutor at the time. Wesley-Smith then wrote to Crown Law about the case. He provided them with court documents, Turner’s police statements, an affidavit from Turner saying his evidence had been changed without his knowledge and asked for a response to this evidence. Crown Law replied saying it wasn’t possible for the Crown to examine Hall’s conviction.
In 2020, Wesley-Smith wrote to Crown Law again raising serious concerns about the police tampering with Turner’s statements. Crown Law replied it didn’t hold any records about the case, and could not help.Crown knew about serious problems with Alan Hall's murder conviction, but did nothing, Stuff, 10 June 2022 Despite receiving this information from Wesley-Smith, in May 2022, in response to a query from Stuff, Crown Law then denied it had any knowledge about the case. They said they had “no record of being notified by anyone that Mr Turner’s statement was altered, prior to receiving documentation from [Alan Hall’s lawyer] relating to the current [Supreme Court] appeal in January 2022. The Solicitor-General is responsible for the conduct of Crown prosecutions. Una Jagose was solicitor general at the time (in 2018) but it was not until Hall's conviction was overturned four years later, in 2022, that she decided to launch an investigation into the Crown’s role in Hall’s wrongful conviction.
Acquittal by Supreme Court In January 2022, Hall's defence team appealed to the Supreme Court. Because the trial and original appeal had occurred so many years earlier, the Supreme Court would only agree to an appeal if the Crown Law Office supported the application. Remarkably, on behalf of Crown Law, Madeleine Laracy and Emma Hoskin finally conceded Hall had suffered a serious miscarriage of justice and should be acquitted. They acknowledged that the police interviews had been “unfair and oppressive” and said: “the Crown acknowledges the unacceptable truth that an unanswerable cause of miscarriage here, and of unfair trial, was deliberate failure by those responsible for the prosecution to disclose material that would have plainly been important in Mr Hall’s defence.”New Zealand court quashes murder conviction of man imprisoned for 19 years, The Guardian, 8 June 2022 When Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann announced the court's decision to acquit Hall, she acknowledged a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred, either from incompetence or malice.
Reaction from Easton family