Mr Haig's daughter, Angela Haig-Mcauliffe, told the Otago Daily Times this morning that the 70-year-old passed away peacefully near Dunedin yesterday.
"We're all just devastated and speechless," she said. "We're going to miss him so much."
Mr Haig was convicted in 1995 for the murder of Mark Roderique and spent 10 years in jail.
Mr Roderique went missing on a fishing trip near Westland on Mr Haig’s boat the previous year.
The Court of Appeal reversed the decision in 2006, but his compensation claim the following year was rejected.
Ms Haig-Mcauliffe told the ODT that, in recent months, her father was mounting a new case for compensation, but was unsure what would happen to that bid now.
"At the moment that will be a family decision, when we get together we'll make it."
The family was "very close", and supported her father through difficult times, she said.
"We've all stuck together as a family through all of that.
"My brother and sister are devastated and my children are devastated."
