Good news and bad
As the Alan Hall case begins to be looked at deeply, not about Alan, but about what happened to him, and who was responsible, New Zealand as a country finally has another moment to look into if not just one, then many false convictions for the first time since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Thomas case some four decades ago. It was not that long after that Alan Hall was framed by police and the Crown just passed the very time when many New Zealanders believed Justice was finally done with the recognition of the planted shell case manufactured after the deaths of Jeanette and Harvey Crewe.
But it was not. There was no drop off from the pace of the innocent being wrongly convicted. In fact, as we see today with our higher Courts somewhat jammed with suspect convictions - bad convictions were suddenly powered by rocket fuel. So what was missing, there were apologies, compensation talk about how such cases should or couldn't ever happen again when in fact some police involved remained in the police and rather than blink accelerated their methods of creating false convictions with the assistance of the Crown. The people who apologised were fakes, and in many cases involved in false convictions themselves as they continued to be buried in their dark work.
There were generational changes, John Hughes who was a junior detective on the Thomas would in 20 years be the senior detective in other cases like that of David Tamihere where John's underworld name was the "planter". He would increase the cultivation of false convictions. One of his cohorts was Bryan Rowe who rose to Superintendent, that was another internal police message to staff that framing people was "ok" when necessary. It was Rowe's "work" with immunity where he only got the Solicitor's General's permission to give witnesses immunity after he already had done so, and police and the Crown were criticised for that by the Privy Council recognizing the danger of giving guilty people the chance to lie, with police help, their way of being convicted for a crime. "lying to save your neck" was suddenly all the rage with drug smugglers and other offenders, even those who killed.
Things kept going the wrong way. Police under Rowe kept on buying witnesses by promising, or giving them gifts, money, time out of prison, or no prison sentence at all when they were clearly guilty of some crime. In the Gail Maney case it appears after the Privy Council case where the issuing of police immunity was criticised, Rowe continued to have it employed. It was officers under his control who offered immunity at least with the witnesses against, Gail and also earlier in the Tamihere case where the planter was still at work. Not to be outdone Christchurch police made an art of getting witnesses to say what they wanted, by bribery, threats, or whatever else might work.
Those 3 cases are still high profile and not going away. Though it appears Gail will have her convictions quashed very soon. and while Scott's case should also fall into that category his supporters are ready to fight on with bringing possible private prosecutions against police if necessary. All the evidence for that was revealed at Scott's recent appeal. David on the other hand, is likely to go to the Supreme Court which, like its lower Court, does not have the consistency of common sense. Or a golden rule - if police conduct was unlawful, charge the culprits and free the prisoner without making the error of trying to fill the cracks or brush over the rot that began the slide into a false conviction. Even with the apparently guilty, or so the Court may think, of the shaky and blurred canvas a false conviction can become, The Court must be consistent in its rejection of fake evidence. This is something Canada did decades ago, along with many States of America have achieved while NZ, and possibly in an even worse manner, Australia continues to ignore. Now is the time.
