Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ / Simon Rogers
The High Court trial of two men charged over the wrongful 1980s conviction of Alan Hall has been further delayed.
It had been due to start in Auckland on Monday but one of the defendants was too unwell to attend.
At another hearing on Wednesday, the four-week judge-alone trial was pushed back to next Monday.
The men, whose names and occupations are suppressed, are jointly charged with wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice.
They earlier pleaded not guilty.
Alan Hall was jailed for life in 1985 for the murder of Arthur Easton, but was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2022 and awarded $5 million in compensation.
At the time Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann said it was a trial gone wrong, and that there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice and he should be acquitted.
Winkelmann said to conclude, it was clear that justice had seriously miscarried – either from extreme incompetence, or a deliberate strategy to achieve a conviction.
A third man facing similar charges to those in the current case died in 2024.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
