Teina Pora was 17 years old when he was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of Ms Susan Burdett in 1994. In 2000, Teina and his lawyers appealed his conviction and again, he was found guilty of Ms Burdetts rape and murder for a second time despite obvious anomalies in the case including a lack of Teina’s DNA or fingerprints in Ms Susan Burdett's residence and the DNA of serial rapist Malcolm Rewa being identified.

After serving over two decades in Paremoremo Prison, he was paroled in April 2014 and the Privy Council quashed Teina's convictions on March 3rd, 2015. Yet despite the Privy Council quashing Teina's convictions, the police as recently as this year, continued to look for more evidence against Teina (see updated post). The continued persecution is sad and extremely disappointing.

More unbelievable case details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teina_Pora How this case continued is astonishing.

Why should you or I care?

This young man was wrongly convicted and sentenced for a crime he did not commit. He has spent, according to his lawyers, 22 years in prison which has significantly damaged his wellbeing and any future prospects for a normal life. I would ask each one of you to decide how much is your freedom worth? What if this injustice happened to someone you loved? Please take into consideration the emotional and mental toll 22 years would have had on you or any young person jailed. He barely had a visitor for the first 10 years!

In our society, we are consistently told we are responsible for our actions and that every action has a consequence. Options are few to many and the majority of all people comply. Whether it seems fair or unreasonable.

Today,  you have an option to help ensure our Government takes responsibility for the actions of those public servants (the police, the prosecution, etc.,) who were responsible for the wrongful conviction that led to a young man being incarcerated for over two decades. Help me to ensure that Teina receives fair compensation as a consequence of his wrongful imprisonment.

Please send a signal to cabinet that we as law abiding citizens see the concerted and continuing unfairness Teina is receiving should stop.

The $2.52M offer did not include an Inflation Component. Cabinet decided that no Inflation needed to be added. The updated guidelines came into play 2001. By then, Teina had spent 7 years in prison. If Inflation is applied, it could be the difference of at least $1M. The NZ Government (Cabinet) can increase the compensation despite Justice Minister Amy Adams commenting that she cannot.

Retired High Court judge Rodney Hansen, QC, who was appointed by NZ Government to review the case after the Privy Council quashed Teina's  conviction has indicated that the Inflation Component* should be applied.  (* bit.ly/1ZTMbAA )

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Thank you.

Ta'afuli Andrew Fiu

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* I have no affiliation to Teina Pora nor have I met him or any of his legal team or supporters in the past.

** Govt has now allowed a challenge (Friday 17 June http://bit.ly/1OtLYDs )  Even more imperative now to show government that NZ supports increasing the payment. In my opinion only - a payment for at least $4M is fair.

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