The Crown will not pursue another trial of David Tamihere, the man who spent 20 years in prison for the murders of two Swedish backpackers in 1989.
Speaking to reporters outside court, Tamihere said he was "half surprised, half pissed off" by the decision, as he had been "quite happy to go to a retrial".
In March the Supreme Court quashed Tamihere's convictions for killing Swedish backpackers Heidi Paakkonen and Urban Hoglin in 1989.
It ordered a retrial, but left it up to the Crown to decide whether to take this step.
Crown Prosecutor Claire Paterson told the Auckland High Court today there was not sufficient evidence to pursue another trial.
Paterson said any retrial would rely on circumstantial evidence which would be disputed, other evidence was not available - including some witnesses - and the latest forensic testing was inconclusive.
Tamihere said the outcome felt "anticlimactic", as he had gone into court ready for whatever came of the day's proceedings.
"Then all of a sudden, it's within a couple of minutes. It's over. It's finished."
He said he would now discuss seeking compensation with his lawyers, and would like it set at the level that applied when he was first convicted. No final decision has been made.
Tamihere always insisted he did not commit the crimes. He spent 20 years in jail, and twice went to the Court of Appeal and lost.
"Unless you've actually lived it, it's hard to comprehend," he said today.
"It's a long time, and it should never have been that long."
He credited his legal team, who he said had worked "really, really long hours", and his family, particularly his wife and sons, as "one of the reasons that I keep going".
His campaign kept alive interest in a case which gripped the country in 1989. The disappearance of the Swedish couple received huge media coverage here and in Sweden, and led to New Zealand's largest ever land search.
Tamihere said he felt sorry for the families of Paakkonen and Hoglin. "In our culture, if you die, doesn't matter where in the world you are, one of us will come and get you," he said. "There's a huge hole, and it's always going to be there until you die."
In its ruling earlier this year, the Supreme Court said the Court of Appeal made a mistake in 2024 in upholding Tamihere's convictions.
The Supreme Court gave two reasons. It said admitting the perjured evidence of Roberto Conchie Harris - who was on remand with Tamihere and claimed he admitted to the killings - at the initial trial means "there was a fundamental error at trial which made the trial unfair".
Harris was convicted of perjury over his evidence.
And the Court said the discovery of Hoglin's body forced the Crown to come up with a "radically different" theory of the crimes. This meant "focusing on events connected to the offending occurring at multiple locations across a different, significantly larger geographical area, and over many hours".
The Supreme Court added: "The new Crown theory means other evidence needs to be seen in a new light and raises questions of credibility and reliability about that evidence.
"There are simply too many questions on the Crown's new theory of the case, which have not been tested, for an appellate court to reach a conclusion about guilt."
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