Alan Hall's controversial murder conviction set to be quashed after 36 years

Friday, 15 April 2022

Alan Hall was 23 when he became the prime suspect for the murder of Arthur Easton in 1985. He was convicted the following year, and spent a total of 19 years in prison.

The man at the centre of one of New Zealand’s most controversial murders is set to have his conviction quashed after 36 years, with authorities finally admitting a miscarriage of justice has occurred.

Alan Hall was found guilty of murdering Arthur Easton in Auckland in October 1985, and spent a total of 19 years in prison for a crime he insists he didn’t commit.

He has repeatedly appealed his 1986 conviction, and been rejected every time.

But now, in an extraordinary move, Crown Law, which oversees criminal prosecutions in New Zealand, has admitted a crucial witness statement was deliberately altered, and other vital evidence was withheld from Hall and his lawyers, and has accepted Hall was likely wrongfully convicted.

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It has urged the Supreme Court to quash Hall’s convictions, and says it won’t seek a retrial.

Alan Hall, now 60, was convicted in 1986 of murdering Arthur Easton in a home invasion. Many groups and individuals have looked at Hall’s case in the 36 years since then, and raised numerous concerns about his conviction.

Hall, his family, and supporters, are now calling for those responsible for Hall’s wrongful conviction to be held to account.

Police have announced they are already reviewing the investigation, and Easton’s family has called for the case to be reinvestigated.

Hall was 23 when police alleged he attacked Arthur Easton, 52, and his teenage sons, Brendan and Kim, in their Papakura home, stabbing them with a bayonet, and leaving Arthur to bleed to death in his hallway.

The father-of-five was a chief technician with the New Zealand Post Office and responsible for hundreds of staff and all telecommunications infrastructure in South Auckland.

Hall – who was described as “backward intellectually” and “simple” at the time, and has since been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder – was detained by police for eight hours on one occasion, and 15 on another.

Alan Hall, left, with his brother Geoff. When their mother, Shirley, died in 2012, Geoff committed to carrying on the fight to clear his brother’s name.

He admitted owning a bayonet like the one abandoned at the scene, and had sometimes worn a woollen hat identical to the one left by the attacker as he fled. He also told police he was walking in the area at the time.

However, eyewitness descriptions clearly suggested the attacker was a powerfully built, 6ft (1.83m), right-handed Māori man. Hall was a 5ft7 (1.7m), slightly-built, asthmatic, left-handed Pākehā.

Some of the most crucial evidence came from Ronald Turner, who saw a man running near the Eastons’ home at the time of the attack. He consistently told police in numerous statements that the man he saw coming from the direction of the crime was Māori and “definitely dark-skinned, he was not white”.

Bizarrely, Turner was not called to give evidence by the prosecution at Hall’s 1986 trial, with his written statement being read to the jury instead.

Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch says police’s role is to ensure the Crown prosecutor has all information relevant to the case. He confirmed an important part of the police review of the Arthur Easton murder investigation would be “what information was assessed as relevant to the prosecution case at the time, who contributed to that assessment, and what was subsequently done with the information in question”.

However, all mentions that the man he saw was Māori had been deliberately removed from the statement, without Turner being consulted or advised.

In addition, his statements to police, noting the man’s ethnicity or race, were not given to Hall’s lawyers.

The judge told the jury in his summing up that if there was a suspicion the offender was Māori, then “of course” the intruder wasn’t Alan Hall.

In an April 8 submission to the Supreme Court as part of Hall’s latest appeal, which has been obtained by Stuff, Crown Law accepted Turner’s evidence had been “materially altered”, and “a misleading version of Mr Turner’s statement was read to the jury, and that this was to the prosecution’s advantage and to the detriment of [Mr Hall’s] defence”.

It said it was “incontrovertible” and “unassailable” this occurred, it was regrettable and “cast a long shadow” over the case, with the Crown accepting evidence had been “concealed”.

Crown Law also acknowledged there was “reasonable foundation for the argument that Mr Hall’s statements were unfairly obtained”; admitted the prosecution didn't disclose material it should have; and noted the “overriding merits” of Hall’s application to the Supreme Court for his case to be reconsidered.

“The Crown is unable to resist the dual propositions that justice miscarried in this case, and Mr Hall’s convictions should be quashed.”

Alan Hall, left, with mother Shirley and brother Geoff in 2008, when Hall was on parole. Shirley was his greatest supporter, eventually selling the family home to pay Alan’s legal bills. She died in 2012, and Hall was returned to prison shortly afterwards for breaching his parole conditions.

It added the Crown would not seek for Hall to be retried.

Meanwhile, police have confirmed they have already started a full review of the investigation into Arthur Easton’s murder.

“That review may include further forensic testing where appropriate,” said Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch.

“Police, at this point, cannot comment on the specific facts of events that happened over 35 years ago, when practices differed significantly from today’s standards.”

However, police did not answer whether they were reopening the investigation into Easton’s murder in light of recent developments.

Hall, who was released on parole in March this year, after being recalled to prison in 2012 for parole breaches, said acknowledgement he had been wrongfully convicted had been a long time coming.

He said police were fixated on him being the killer, and told him to admit to it and get it off his chest.

“They weren’t listening, they weren’t interested in the truth. They wanted me to say what they felt I should be saying. They were in their little fantasy land.

“I’ve always thought the police had the IQ of a carrot – and you can bloody well quote me on that.”

Hall, now 60, said he could never forgive those who doctored evidence, which led to him spending nearly two decades in jail.

“This will be over when the police and officers who did this get punished, get arrested, go to court, and news media report on this and the public will hear about it.”

Hall said prison had been a horrible place, but he wasn’t the only person who had suffered.

“The Easton family has been dragged through the case, and now they’re going to be dragged through it again. My condolences go out to them. Especially the sons, going through what they went through.”

Hall wanted to hear a judge say his conviction had been quashed. But he felt any apology from police would be “as fake and phoney as a three-dollar bill”.

Hall’s brother Geoff said the family had been left feeling numb by the Crown’s U-turn on the case.

“I really thought it would have been a eureka moment and high-fives around the house. But after 36 years, it was a little bit subdued – what an absolute waste of Alan’s life.”

He still felt anger about what had happened to his brother, and frustration it took so long for anyone in authority to take notice.

“What [the Crown] are talking about has been known for 30 years. All the information that could have quashed Alan’s conviction was sitting in the Crown files and police files, and no one would look at it in this way.”

Teina Pora's legal team, Lawyer Jonathan Krebs and Investigator Tim McKinnel, speak to media outside Auckland High Court after it was agreed that Pora would receive an extra $988,000 in compensation.

Now, he wanted accountability.

“It takes mana and integrity to take ownership for your wrongdoing. And I want to see that. I really want to see the police take ownership of this, and open the investigation, and track down who the murderer of Arthur Easton is.

“We’ve always known Alan was innocent and one day – just keep at it, keep at it, keep at it – we’d get there.

“Thirty-six years ago, I got a phone call from Alan saying, ‘They’ve arrested me for something, I don’t know what it is, they won’t tell me.’

“And Mum and I went down to the police station and the head of the inquiry said: ‘I’ve got to advise you we’ve arrested Alan for the murder of Arthur Easton.’

Investigator Tim McKinnel worked on Alan Hall’s case for four years and helped prepare his appeal to the Supreme Court.

“And I stood up and said, ‘How can you guys be so stupid? How could you get this so wrong?’

“And I made a promise then, to them, that I will see this through, I will see this right. And we’ve got there now. We’ve got there.”

Chris Easton, Arthur Easton’s oldest son and the family’s spokesperson, said they had been advised of the case’s new developments late last week.

“The Crown’s position has changed significantly as more information has come to light over the past 36 years. It would appear the submissions also indicate evolution of the justice system and investigative standards over the time.

“As the victims of this crime, the family has placed its trust in the New Zealand justice system, and trusts that it will reinvestigate to ensure justice for all parties involved.”

Tim McKinnel, the investigator who helped prove Teina Pora had been wrongfully convicted of rape and murder, worked on Alan Hall’s case for four years and helped prepare his appeal to the Supreme Court.

He said the latest development was both tragic and a relief.

“Tragic that it’s taken 36 years to get to this point for Alan and his family. But a relief that what they’ve known since 1985 – that Alan did not kill Arthur Easton and had absolutely nothing to do with it – is not being disputed by the Crown, it seems.”

McKinnel said the Supreme Court still had to decide how to deal with Hall’s case, “but I think even on the Crown’s own assessment of the facts, there are some very serious questions to be asked about what’s occurred in this case, and the conduct of police.

“There are some really troubling actions by pretty senior officers, and I think there’s a lot more to be said about that, at the appropriate time.”

One of Alan Hall’s biggest regrets is that his mother, Shirley, who was his biggest supporter and ended up selling the family home to fund her son’s legal costs, isn’t alive to see his name cleared, having died in 2012.

Despite the end of his long legal road inching closer, Hall said he wasn’t getting ahead of himself, but just took each day as it came, as he got used to life outside prison again.

“Like (radio DJ) Casey Kasem used to say when he signed off on American Top 40: ‘Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.’ ”