A High Court judge has found two former police officers not guilty of wilfully perverting the course of justice over the wrongful murder conviction of Alan Hall.
Families of the two men gasped with relief as the verdicts were read out.
The two men have had their names suppressed and now seek permanent suppression.
The reasons for Justice Ian Gault's verdicts are to be released shortly.
Hall spent 19 years in jail for the 1985 murder of Arthur Easton in the Auckland suburb of Papakura. Easton was a chief technician with NZ Post Office – later Telecom – holding responsibility for hundreds of staff and all telecommunications infrastructure in South Auckland.
After several appeals, the Supreme Court quashed Hall's conviction in 2022, saying the original case was "a trial gone wrong" and significant parts of the criminal justice system had failed Hall.
He was then awarded nearly $5 million in compensation, the highest ever pay out in New Zealand.
The two former police officers were part of the initial investigation.
They were accused of withholding an original witness statement from the defence and instead presenting an altered version.
The witness described a potential offender fleeing the scene as Māori, but that description was omitted when the statement was presented to court. Hall is pakeha.
In late 2024 police re-opened the murder investigation into Easton's murder and offered a $100,000 reward for information.
Police said as a result they sent detectives to Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria to follow up information that had come in after the reward was posted.
They also sought new analysis of DNA recovered from a bayonet and woollen hat found at the murder scene in 1985.
Police said today the investigation remained open, but they had no new update on the case.
Police respond to the High Court decision
Assistant Commissioner Investigations Corrie Parnell said the not guilty verdicts brought an end to criminal proceedings and police "stand by our decision to put this case before the courts".
"At the very outset, we must acknowledge two families that have being seeking justice since the very beginning: Alan Hall and his family, and the family of Arthur Easton, who was tragically murdered more than 40 years ago.
Parnell said the Supreme Court acquitted Alan Hall for murder in 2022 and found a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred.
"The onus was on the wider justice system to understand how this was able to occur over many decades. It is our view, after a thorough investigation decades later, that there was an end-to-end justice system failure, but we also recognised that individuals responsible for key steps in the case played a critical role and that needed to be answered in the courts.
"Police accept that we had a part to play in this failure occurring.
"The public places great faith and trust in police and the wider Justice sector to act on their behalf and ensure that criminal procedures are carried out fairly."
Parnell said legislation, systems and processes in the justice sector have advanced in the decades since this case was first prosecuted but "we acknowledge the Hall family have been left waiting for answers for a long time".
"We must also acknowledge the Easton family, who are still seeking answers as to who murdered Arthur Easton more than 40 years ago.
"Police are awaiting the release of the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s report into this matter, and we will be in a position to comment further at that time."
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