As the Tamihere case falls to pieces, you should sign the Social Justice Aotearoa petition for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Alan Hall case.
‘It’s nothing to do with us’: Officials ignored warnings over Alan Hall case
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 investigationinto 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.
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.
The report is so much worse than we feared.
They fucking knew they had framed an innocent man and no one in the system lifted a finger!
It is an obscenity that just become an abomination.
Anyone reading the Alan Hall case would be shocked at the blatant attempt to frame him for the crime.
You honestly get the perception after reading the reports that the cops simply rounded up the most vulnerable person near the crime and bullied him into answers that were used to frame him while withholding evidence that proved he didn’t do it.
They fucking knew Alan couldn’t have committed the crime, but the simply framed him anyway because their interrogation techniques are manipulative and have little to do with catching the actual criminal and more to do with simply finding a prosecution.
With the recent litany of miscarriage of justice cases, seeing the inside of a corrupted police interrogation process happening in real time now suggests the Police have learned NOTHING from the mistakes and failures of the past, which is what we have been promised every time one of these miscarriages of justice get exposed.
You should sign the Social Justice Aotearoa petition for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Alan Hall case.
If the NZ Police can get away with these miscarriages of justice, then there is no justice.
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And while you’re at it how about a Royal Commission of Inquiry into everything else?
The police are a symptom of a far, far greater problem for us lovely AO/Kiwis being reduced to special-needs Americans with guns and God on their side to protect their right to express their various psychosis.
You’d need to be on life support to not notice that AO/NZ’s general societal performance has tanked since we human beings became monetised by Old Labour’s far right fascist traitor, roger douglas, with thatcher and regan on his side to direct him in the most cost effective ways *to fuck us on the deal, *to lightly paraphrase William S. Burroughs.
We should also remember, in my humble opinion, that during times of fascism, such as we have right now, the police will be used as a means to spread threatening propaganda. “ Look what we can do to you if you fuck us off.” I’m not writing that this is the case in this instance but that I can find reason to think that way is enough to make me feel anxious.
Great post Martyn
your writing is straight to the point, no holds barred and factual.
it is so good to see that we have an independent advocacy group like SJA who are no scared of standing up seeking the real truth, and having you to support them to seek that truth.
it will be interesting to see where this all goes.
FUCK THE POLICE AND FUCK THE CROWN!!!
To think you have people out there who trundle out some bullshit like “if you are not doing anything wrong then what’s your problem” when it comes to things like surveillance and photography of people/facial recognition and the like. How many more examples do you need to say we need to be very careful with the powers we give the police.
The Allan Hall case is an illustration of police corruption at its most egregious. Not only did the cops investigating Mr Easton’s murder delete crucial information from the statement of an independent witness, without the witness’s knowledge, and then just read the statement at Allan’s trial, which meant the witness did not have to give evidence in person, but they also added information to fit the description of Allan Hall, when in fact the description by the independent witness of the person he/she saw running away from the scene was the complete opposite of Mr Hall and it was this description that was deleted.
Then, if that was not bad enough, the cops interviewed Mr Hall, who is autistic, for hours and hours and hours non-stop without legal representation. They would have known Mr Hall was autistic yet they callously and brutally denied him his basic right to have a lawyer present, especially to support such a vulnerable and frightened young man.
The cops, or probably now ex-cops, who did this to Allan Hall need to be called to account. They prosecute other people for perverting justice yet they seem to stand above the law themselves and get away with it, with a sneering air of arrogance and entitlement, time and time again.
If there is a Royal Commission of Enquiry, and hopefully there is, will it look at the very system that seems to endorse the actions of these and other corrupt cops? Probably not, because the very system that talks about a fair and independent justice system, is the very system that is corrupt. Look at how one visible aspect of the system, the IPCA, works. Because it is made up of retired cops, whose arrogant and corrupt attitude is that the police can do no wrong, corrupt cops are pretty much protected. If a person complains to the IPCA, more often than not, the IPCA dismisses the complaint in a typically harsh and dismissive almost mocking manner that reeks of the very festering sore-like corruption it is meant to be investigating.
Totally agree, the police have made far too many wrongful convictions over the years to accept that it is just a mistake, they are more interested in convictions than making sure that they find the actual guilty person
youngsuffrajet couldn’t agree more. What a wonderful post written with thought and a totally educated view.
You talk around the IPCA and you are so right. I believe that Jackie Foster of Social Justice Aotearoa is wanting a complete review of the IPCA and wants an independent system where ex police can not ever be involved with.
Again well written and why dont you reach out to Social Justice Aotearoa to see if you can get involved in some way shape of form.
A conspiracy theory has now been proven a conspiracy fact. This is why people are so quick believe conspiracy theories. Things like this make people lose trust and faith in these institutions. If the majority lose trust and faith in our systems, we are all really stuffed!