There’s another thing Stuff Circuit found out under the Official Information Act, and it related to Tim Morrison’s case and the way it was pursued.

Prosecution guidelines issued by Crown Law point out that many criminal investigations will require specialised legal advice from the earliest stages.

But in Morrison’s case, the first time the Crown Solicitor was contacted was after he had already been committed for trial.

There are no records of any contact before then, indicating police made the decision to prosecute him without getting advice from the Crown Solicitor.

And when it went to depositions - a stage in the criminal process when there is an opportunity to test the evidence to see if it should be going to trial - there was no hearing, as such. Evidence was handed up in written form - 27 pages which consisted of statements by the police.

Police would not be interviewed for this story but in a statement to Stuff Circuit, they said there was no requirement for them to consult the Crown Solicitor, and that it was “common practice” for them to lay charges without prior consultation.

Asked if there was any data upon which that comment was based, a spokesperson said: “There is no retrievable data on this specific matter, sorry.”

(Which is perhaps ironic, given it proves the point of the Waitangi Tribunal claim).

The Independent Police Conduct Authority had investigated the decision and accepted that it was reasonable.

But to Morrison and Smail, it highlights that these decisions are left to the police, without oversight. Why wouldn’t the police seek advice from the Crown Solicitor?

Quince agrees. “That seems unusual given both the seriousness of the charge per se but also given what they knew about the witnesses that were available at that time,” she says.

“You may well draw the inference that it may be because this was a young Māori man who was in those circumstances dealing with a charge of violence. So who knows. That’s the nature of trying to untangle or unpack decisions of bias.”

The point being: if police were required, as this claim proposes, to record ethnicity data for such decisions and thus to be accountable for them, they might be more inclined to take advice. And that might impact on whether the prosecution proceeds, at all.

In August, 2013, Crown v Morrison went to trial, and a jury found him not guilty.


Some people would have walked away at that point, got on with their lives. And Morrison sure has got on with his life.

When the trial was finished, he completed his studies and began work as a paramedic at St John.

But, driven by a desire to contribute more, he applied for medical school at Otago University. And recently, he was accepted. Next year, Morrison will begin studying to be a doctor.

But that doesn’t mean he wants to leave behind the experience of what happened to him. He wants to use it to create change.

But what change is needed?

There would be those who say, “well, the system worked, he was found not guilty”.

But Khylee Quince says that ignores the “corollary consequences” - the impact being charged has in terms of employment, education, and emotionally, when a life is put on hold.

“Literally just coming into contact with the system is harmful and if coming into contact with the system is harmful and not applied equally to all citizens then that is discriminatory, that is prejudiced, and then that is potentially racist,” says Quince.

She hopes Morrison’s claim can be a circuit breaker, dealing with the problem before it’s too late. “I think talk about lowering the prison population is too late - you’re talking about people that have long offending histories, histories that could have been stopped in their tracks when people like Tim Morrison are done for drinking in public.”

The key is to stop the labelling of young people as criminals, and to stop them being filtered into the system in the first place, she says.

And to achieve that, Roimata Smail believes there needs to be accountability.

“All these decisions that police make along the way to a case coming before the court have a snowball effect,” she says. “And the result of it has a huge impact on individuals, whānau, communities and even generations.

“It's important that with each of those decisions the police are accountable for them.”

Morrison is happy to lead the way in this quest for change, even if that means exposing himself to public scrutiny.

“I can’t stand in the shadows and say, ‘this needs to happen but don’t look at me’,” he says. “Someone needs to stick up their hand and say, ‘I’ve come from this part of life, this part of society which the rest of society shuns, but I’ve achieved, I’ve realised my potential further on down the road’.”

Have you been the victim of bias in the criminal justice system? Get in touch with Stuff Circuit via email stuffcircuit@stuff.co.nz.