A Napier man, who spent 16 months in jail facing a murder charge, will have another chance to clear his name after a judge's rejection of a bid to have his claim struck out in the High Court.
The claim has been made by the now 55-year-old Zion King who has always denied any involvement in the killing of Onekawa South neighbour Chattrice Maihi-Carroll who was found stabbed to death in her unit on January 21, 2008.
Mr King was arrested two months later, but the charges were dropped when Crown prosecutor Russell Collins, now a District Court judge, said the Crown was not offering any evidence as the trial was about to start in the High Court in Napier on February 8, 2010.
Turned down for an ex gratia payment of compensation under a scheme established by Cabinet for people wrong fully convicted, he had a claim lodged by Napier barrister Russell Fairbrother QC.
The Attorney General's application to have the claim struck off was heard by Associate Judge Warwick Smith in the High Court in Wellington in December, and in a decision yesterday he ruled that while claims of police negligence up to the time Mr King was charged on March 26, 2008, could not stand, the allegations of negligence for the period following the arrest "are to go to trial."
The judge noted particularly that the late disclosure of DNA evidence, which did not implicate Mr King in any way, "has not yet been explained".
The consequences of late disclosure "appear to have been serious," he said, and that "on the facts as pleaded, there appears to be a substantial injustice factor".
Mr King and Ms Maihi-Carrolll, who was 46 when she died, lived in neighbouring flats at the corner of Venables and Cottrell crescents Onekawa South.
By his own concessions he had not led a blameless life, had been to prison in the past, and bore the tattoos of his past, but by January 2008 had an established job, as a food processing worker, and was paying off a vehicle he called his "pride and joy" as he tried to make headway for the sake of his grown children and his grandchildren.
After discovery of the body, police searched his home and vehicle, finding no physical evidence either in the woman's flat or his own possessions to connect him to the crime, but Mr King was charged at the end of March with murder, mainly on the basis of witness claims that he had been talking about the killing before it was discovered.
Denying any involvement and represented by Auckland barrister Peter Williams QC and Mr Fairbrother, his first trial in the High Court in Napier in June 2009 was abandoned after two days following an application by Mr Williams, who has since died,.
The second trial in the High Court in Napier on February 8, 2010, was even quicker, when Justice Denis Clifford granted a defence application for a discharge after the Crown decided to offer no evidence, after Mr Collins said it was "unsafe" for the Crown to offer its evidence as a reliable basis for a jury to reach a verdict.
Having spent 16 months in jail on remand and another six months on bail ordered to live outside Hawke's Bay and away from his family, Mr King was a free man, and said at the time: "I never should have been charged, full stop. I am not the person responsible."
Mr Williams, who died two years ago, at the age of 80, said after the trial a private investigator had established evidence that Mr King had spoken about the incident only after he saw the police during a return home for lunch, and there was other evidence that discredited suggestions he had been aware any earlier. He said police had focused on Mr King because of his appearance, including being Maori, and had not considered other possibilities, when there was another clear suspect.
Mr Williams told Hawke's Bay Today in 2013 he had been sure of Mr King's innocence the moment they'd met, and that he was due compensation. "I am angry," Mr Williams said at the time.
Mr Fairbrother was not immediately available for comment yesterday, but Mr King, who had not been in touch with the lawyer in the short time since the decision was released, said he was "stoked" and hopes to finally clear his name and be redressed for the financial and family hardship that had resulted from his arrest.