March 30, 2015
Retrial unlikely for Teina Pora
The Privy Council has recommended that Teina Pora not be re-tried for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett.
The panel in London, which included New Zealand Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, has been considering submissions on the retrial after quashing his convictions earlier this month.
Mr Pora was first found guilty in 1994, two years after the 39-year-old Ms Burdett was found bludgeoned to death in her Papatoetoe home.
That conviction was overturned in 1999 when DNA examination linked semen found at the scene to serial rapist Marlcom Rewa.
He was again found guilty the next year in a retrial.
The latest appeal turned on new scientific evidence about the reliabilty of Mr Pora's confession, given fetal alcohol damage made him eager to please authority figures.
His lawyer Jonathan Krebs says the crown's submissions to the Privy council had conceded it was not in the public interest to pursue another trial because Mr Pora had already served 20 years in prison and was out on parole when his appeal was successful.
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