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.
After several appeals the Supreme Court quashed his 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.
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