Teina Pora to receive $2 million compensation

Stuff reports:

Teina Pora will receive a record $2 million compensation payout, which was approved by Cabinet this week.

Pora was convicted in 1994 of the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett, an accounts clerk who was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat in her South Auckland home.

Pora spent 21 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of rape and murder.

New evidence presented to the Privy Council showed Pora suffered from foetal alcohol syndrome that made his confession, which was key to his original conviction, unsafe. No retrial was ordered.

It’s understood the mood in Cabinet was that the compensation was well deserved.

The payment will be the highest ever, with Arthur Allan Thomas getting $1 million. 

A spokesman for Justice Minister Amy Adams said an announcement regarding Pora’s compensation was due tomorrow.

It seems reasonable for 21 years in prison. You could argue for even more.

It is well documented that Pora is not fully intellectually able due to the foetal alcohol syndrome. I hope he has good friends and supporters who will assist him in managing the money from the payout, so he isn’t taken advantage by others.