After spending nearly 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, New Zealand citizen Alan Hall will be granted a compensation package worth NZ$4.9 million (US$3 million), announced the government on Friday.
Hall was wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment in 1986 for a fatal stabbing incident during a home invasion in Auckland.
The conviction occurred despite no forensic evidence tying him to the crime and descriptions of the attacker differing significantly from Hall’s physical appearance and ethnicity.
Having been paroled in 1994, Hall faced re-imprisonment in 2012 for violating his release conditions, only to be acquitted and set free last year.
New Zealand’s Supreme Court has since stated that the initial trial Hall underwent displayed either “extreme incompetence” or intentional misconduct aiming for a conviction.
On Friday, Justice Minister Deborah Russell expressed the government’s deep regret over the incident. “The New Zealand government apologises unreservedly for his wrongful convictions and imprisonment,” she said, adding, “the apology and compensation can never completely remedy the injustice Hall has suffered.”
The family of Hall, who was arrested at age 24 and is now 61, voiced their relief to the local press. “We’re relieved the fight to clear his name is finally over,” they said.