'It's nothing to do with us': Officials ignored warnings over Alan Hall case

Thursday, 25 May 2023

Alan Hall, who was convicted of murdering Arthur Easton, spent 19 years in jail for the crime. His conviction was quashed by the Supreme Court. Stuff followed Alan and his family during the process. (First published in June 2022)

A new report outlines how evidence of Alan Hall’s wrongful conviction was known to Crown lawyers and police for years, but officials did nothing.

Hall was convicted of murdering Arthur Easton in 1985, and spent more than 19 years in prison. He was finally acquitted by the Supreme Court last year.

In the wake of this, the Solicitor-General ordered an investigation into the Crown’s role in Hall’s case.

The review, by Wellington lawyer Nicolette Levy, KC, was completed in November, but a heavily redacted version was only been released on Friday.

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Alan Hall outside Parliament, the day before his murder conviction was quashed in the Supreme Court.

It details how Crown Law, which oversees all prosecutions in New Zealand and handles appeals, was sent detailed information by former Newshub journalist Mike Wesley-Smith in 2018, and again in 2020. The information showed crucial witness evidence had been deliberately altered and withheld by police and the prosecution during Hall’s trial and appeal.

Emails reveal Crown Law took no action, with comments including: “It’s nothing to do with us”; “It’s all a bit untidy, and we really have no way of knowing what happened after so many years”; and “I don’t think there is anything we can usefully do at this stage”.

Police were also aware of the serious problems with Hall’s conviction, with Detective Inspector Dave Lynch emailing Crown Law in 2019, saying the case was “a bit ugly,” and outlining problems with it.

Lynch pushed the issue back to Crown Law, suggesting it decide if further action was needed.

Tim McKinnel spent years working on Alan Hall’s case with colleague Katya Paquin, in an effort to prove Hall’s innocence.

No action was taken until January 2022 when Hall’s legal team filed an application for an appeal in the Supreme Court.

All this time, Hall remained in prison.

Levy’s report outlines how Crown Law’s criminal team manager at the time, Charlotte Brook, only looked at the material Wesley-Smith provided in “a cursory way”, and didn’t fully grasp the issues being raised.

Despite this, Levy found nobody at Crown Law was at fault.

“In my view, there was no obligation on the Crown lawyers to fully absorb and analyse the material presented by Mr Wesley-Smith, either for the purpose of commenting on it to him, or in pursuit of a remedy for Mr Hall.”

Levy said it wasn't the job of Crown lawyers to “investigate alleged miscarriages of justice brought to their attention by the media or members of the public,” and suggested all they could be expected to do was alert a convicted person of their legal options.

Investigator Tim McKinnel, who, with lawyer Nick Chisnall, KC, was instrumental in having Hall’s conviction overturned last year, said he didn’t agree with Levy’s conclusion Crown Law did nothing wrong.

Alan Hall, centre, with brothers Greg, left, and Geoff. Hall’s family fought for decades to free him, and prove his innocence.

“I have a different view of what’s occurred in this case, and I have a different view of what the Crown’s role should be when credible claims of miscarriage of justice occur.

“One of my frustrations with our treatment of miscarriages of justice in this country is the passive approach the State takes.”

McKinnel said even a superficial review of the information Wesley-Smith provided should have worried officials and caused them to act.

“And this lack of curiosity and passive approach has to change.”

McKinnel, who also helped overturn Teina Pora’s convictions for murder and rape, said Wesley-Smith had done absolutely everything a journalist could do in alerting authorities to the serious problems.

“And I don’t think there can be any doubt that what occurred was completely unsatisfactory, given what we now know of Alan’s case.

“For Crown Law and state agencies to be dismissive of journalists working on miscarriage of justice cases is ridiculous. There’s barely a miscarriage of justice case in this country where journalism hasn’t played a leading role.”

Alan Hall’s brother, Geoff Hall, said when he read Levy’s report, it appeared some people were “running for cover”.

In the four years between Crown Law being alerted to issues with Alan’s case, and his release from prison in 2022, Alan had deteriorated badly, Geoff said.

Alan Hall, who spent 19 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

“The spark he had before the police and Crown took hold of him had been extinguished.”

However, in the last 18 months, Crown Law’s actions had been exceptional, and he was starting to see “glimpses of the old Alan”.

“If Crown Law was like this back in the 80s, Alan would never have been arrested.”

All parties have lauded the work of Crown Law’s Emma Hoskin, left, and Madeleine Laracy, after they became aware of what had happened to Alan Hall, and immediately sought to rectify it.

Mike Wesley-Smith said he was disappointed with some of Levy’s findings, and her criticisms of his supposed unrealistic deadlines for responses from Crown Law.

“I think it’s remarkable that the only time the word “unreasonable” appears in this report, is in relation to something I did.”

Given he presented Crown Law with clear evidence over 18 months of what had gone wrong in Hall’s case, he said the Crown could have acted at any time in that period. Instead, what happened was four years of official buck-passing and handwashing.

“My argument isn’t that Crown Law should be prompted to act because I had a deadline for a story – they should have been prompted to act because the facts of the case and the interests of justice demanded it.

“I don’t know what more I could have done to spell it out to them. I literally conveyed the information in every medium a human-being can process, through audio, video, written word.”

Levy’s finding that Crown Law had no obligation to act on the information he provided Crown Law with was particularly frustrating for Wesley-Smith.

“The Crown put Alan Hall in prison. Once the Crown knew that was wrong, the Crown had the responsibility to get him out of prison – nobody else.

“It’s not fair or just to put all that burden on an imprisoned person and their lawyers.

“I think the public would have so much more confidence if they saw all the people in the system working together when it was required.”

Wesley-Smith believed the best example of this was over the last 18 months, when Crown Law’s Madeleine Laracy and Emma Hoskin had acted impeccably in instantly appreciating what had happened to Hall, and rectifying it.

Solicitor-General Una Jagose, KC, was directly alerted to Hall’s case in 2018, but was not interviewed by Levy.

In a statement, Jagose noted Levy found her department’s lawyers didn’t fail in their responsibilities, and Levy didn’t consider “Crown Law was in a position at that point to have seen the miscarriage, or taken other action.”

Levy’s report had been sent to police for them to consider, and the extensive redactions in what was released today were to avoid jeopardising any police investigation.

Police inquiries into the case are continuing, as well as an Independent Police Conduct Authority probe.

Hall’s bid for compensation for his wrongful conviction is currently being considered by retired High Court judge Rodney Hansen, KC.