Cases
September 28, 2022
The Hon Rodney Hansen CNZM KC, former Judge of the High Court of New Zealand, has been appointed by Minister for Justice Kiri Allan this month to assess Alan Hall’s compensation claim for wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
After a trial by jury in 1986, Mr Hall was convicted of the murder of Arthur Easton and intentional wounding of Brendon Easton. He was only 23 years old.
Mr Hall was sentenced following conviction to life imprisonment. He spent eight years in prison before being released on parole in 1994. Mr Hall was recalled to prison in June 2012, where he spent nearly a decade longer before again being released on parole in February 2022. He applied unsuccessfully on three occasions — twice in 1988 and once in 1993 — for the exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy.
Alan Hall lodged his application for compensation in July, following the Supreme Court’s decision to quash his convictions for murder and intentional wounding: Hall v R [2022] NZSC 71. At his trial in 1986, the Crown placed considerable weight on the evidence of witness Mr Turner, who said he saw a man in a dark blue sweatshirt running from the Easton household on the night of the homicide.
Mr Turner had repeatedly told police that the man he saw was of Māori ethnicity, yet this evidence was omitted in the police statement read to the Court. Mr Hall, who is of Pākeha descent, did not fit this criteria. The police also failed to have Mr Turner identify whether Mr Hall’s blue sweatshirt, which had been seized by police, matched the one he saw on the night of the homicide. There was evidence that showed Mr Hall had only purchased this blue sweatshirt a month after the homicide.
The Supreme Court considered it plain that Mr Hall’s statements to police had been unfairly obtained. The police interviews were unfair and oppressive to Mr Hall, who was autistic and suffered from significant disadvantages in appropriately responding to police questioning. Despite his vulnerability, which the Crown accepted would have been apparent to police at the time, the police interviewed Mr Hall on two occasions for 8 and 15 hours, without legal advice and in respect of which parts of the interview were not recorded.
The Supreme Court said it was clear justice had seriously miscarried at Mr Hall’s trial, and that the failures had either been a result of extreme incompetence or a deliberate and wrongful strategy to secure conviction. The Court accepted Mr Hall’s characterisation of the proceedings as a “trial gone wrong” and that significant parts of the criminal justice system had failed Mr Hall, causing him serious harm.
In appointing Mr Hansen on 14 September, the Hon Kiri Allen stated that Mr Hall’s claims for compensation required further assessment and needed to be assessed by an experienced independent inquirer. Ms Allen noted that Mr Hansen has had a distinguished legal career, remained active in the law, and was particularly well suited to advise on Mr Hall’s claim, given his extensive experience on the bench and his knowledge of the compensation process. Mr Hansen had previously been appointed in 2015 to assess Teina Pora’s claim for compensation for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Mr Pora received over $3 million in 2017 after he wrongfully spent 19 years and 7 months in prison.
Mr Hansen will assess Mr Hall’s claim for compensation under Cabinet’s Compensation Guidelines for Wrongful Conviction and Imprisonment and will provide a report to Ms Allen on whether or not he considers Mr Hall has established his innocence on the balance of probabilities, being a prerequisite to compensation. To be eligible for compensation, compensation must be in the interests of justice and the applicant must have suffered losses which are compensable.
