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Speaker 1: Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions. I'm Laura and I writer.

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Speaker 2: And I'm Steve Drusen.

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Speaker 1: So far, we've told you false confession stories that span

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Speaker 1: the United States, from urban Chicago to rural Nebraska. Today,

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Speaker 1: we'll take you across the globe to New Zealand with

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Speaker 1: a story that still hits way too close to home.

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Speaker 1: A sixteen year old boy who confessed to a rape

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Speaker 1: and murder he didn't commit. His wrongful conviction allowed the

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Speaker 1: real offender, a prolific serial rapist, to assault dozens of

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Speaker 1: other women, while a teenager languished behind bars after making

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Speaker 1: a murder. Came out season two, Steve and I have

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Speaker 1: had an opportunity to travel around the globe talking to

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Speaker 1: audiences about the problem of false confessions and the need

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Speaker 1: for criminal justice reform. We've spoken everywhere from the United

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Speaker 1: States to the United Das Kingdom, to Ireland to Australia.

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Speaker 1: Can you remember this guy, Steve, who traveled around Australia

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Speaker 1: with us?

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Speaker 2: Oh God, this guy, this guy was beautiful. What was

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Speaker 2: his name, Jimon? His name was Simon. Simon. Simon was

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Speaker 2: like a roadie from the nineteen seventies, always wearing black

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Speaker 2: T shirts and deep into the heavy metal scene.

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Speaker 1: Somehow, poor Simon gets assigned to the lawyers who are

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Speaker 1: traveling around talking about false confessions. One of my personal

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Speaker 1: points of pride though, is that by the end of

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Speaker 1: this trip around Australia, he seemed to like what we

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Speaker 1: were trying to do, so we had a great time

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Speaker 1: with him. But Simon kept asking us, as did everybody

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Speaker 1: else we met around Australia. Have you heard about Tana Pora?

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Speaker 1: Have you heard about New Zealand's Brendon Dassy And that's

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Speaker 1: exactly who Tana is.

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Speaker 2: Police officers around the world are often trained in very

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Speaker 2: similar ways about how to interrogate suspects, and so I

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Speaker 2: expected and was beginning to discover false confessions in places

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Speaker 2: like Japan and Korea and other Commonwealth countries like Australia

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Speaker 2: and New Zealand and Canada.

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Speaker 1: These are stories that hit home around the globe, whether

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Speaker 1: it's for you know, social justice driven lawyers or heavy

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Speaker 1: metal roadies. You know Tanapora, Brendan Dacy. We all know

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Speaker 1: someone vulnerable like them, and we can all see them

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Speaker 1: need to do justice in cases like these. Tanapora's story

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Speaker 1: starts about eight thousand miles away from where Steve and

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Speaker 1: I are sitting right now in the United States. It

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Speaker 1: starts in South Auckland. That's an urban area on the

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Speaker 1: southern edge of New Zealand's largest city, Auckland. It's home

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Speaker 1: to a large minority population, including Mao Reed's, the indigenous

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Speaker 1: Polynesian population of New Zealand. Parts of South Auckland can

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Speaker 1: have negative connotations too often. It's associated with poverty and crime.

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Speaker 1: When our story starts in nineteen ninety two, South Auckland

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Speaker 1: was home to a nine year old woman named Susan Burdette.

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Speaker 1: Susan lived alone in a tidy house on Paw Road.

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Speaker 1: She worked days as an account's clerk at a chemical

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Speaker 1: manufacturing company, and on the evening of March twenty third,

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Susan leaves her weekly bowling league meet

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Speaker 1: up and drives home under a night of beautiful stars.

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Speaker 1: Susan's a hard worker, so when she doesn't show up

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Speaker 1: at work the next few days, her colleagues get concerned.

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Speaker 1: They call her friend Steve eventually to find out if

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Speaker 1: he knows where she is. Steve gets worried and he

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Speaker 1: ends up going over to Susan's house That Wednesday, March

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Speaker 1: twenty fifth, at about twelve forty pm, he finds the

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Speaker 1: front door unlocked, goes inside and is greeted with a

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Speaker 1: horrible sight. Susan is lying horizontally on her waterbed and

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Speaker 1: she's clearly dead. The upper half of her body is

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Speaker 1: wrapped in a duvet and there's a wooden baseball bet

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Speaker 1: lying on the bed next to her. Her legs are

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Speaker 1: dangling off the side of the bed and there crossed.

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Speaker 1: Someone whoever did this had positioned her that way. The

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Speaker 1: police arrived, they remove the duvet and they find that

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Speaker 1: Susan had been beaten badly about the head, very likely

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Speaker 1: with the baseball bat. She'd also been sexually assaulted, and

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Speaker 1: there's plenty of DNA left behind seamen, as well as

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Speaker 1: a bloody smudge mark on a light switch. Susan's hands

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Speaker 1: were covered with defensive wounds, which indicates that she'd fought

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Speaker 1: back against her attacker, and her friends later identified the

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Speaker 1: baseball bat as belonging to Susan. She had kept it

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Speaker 1: next to her bed for her own protection. The police

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Speaker 1: begin by investigating Susan's other friends, but DNA and alibis

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Speaker 1: clear them all and the investigation quickly stalls. The pressure

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Speaker 1: is building building, that is until about a week after

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Speaker 1: the murder. That's when police get a call from a

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Speaker 1: woman named Terry McLoughlin and she tells them a story

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Speaker 1: about her then sixteen year old nephew, a shaggy haired,

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Speaker 1: baby faced mawory kid named Tana Poora.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about Tana for a bit. Tana had

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Speaker 2: it rough growing up. His mother died when he was

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Speaker 2: a young boy, and his father left shortly afterwards. He

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Speaker 2: then got passed around from family member to family member

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Speaker 2: and ultimately ended up in his aunt Terry's house.

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Speaker 1: A few days after Susan Burdett's murder made headlines, Tana

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Speaker 1: and some friends found a baseball bat in the local

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Speaker 1: park and they were joking about it being the murder weapon.

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Speaker 1: Back at Aunt Terry's house, Tana kept talking about the bat.

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Speaker 1: Tana had a history of run ins with the law,

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Speaker 1: nothing really serious, but enough for Terry to want him

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Speaker 1: out of her house. She called the police over and over,

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Speaker 1: insisting that Tana knew something about Susan Burdett's murder. But

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Speaker 1: police quickly come to the conclusion that Tana and his

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Speaker 1: buddies were just over excited teens who were talking shit.

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Speaker 1: They interviewed Tana, they take his DNA, they even execute

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Speaker 1: a search warrant, but Tana and his friends are ruled

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Speaker 1: out exclusively as Susan Burdett's killers. The DNA doesn't match,

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Speaker 1: the search warrant turns up nothing, and while Tana does

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Speaker 1: have a record, there is nothing in his background that

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Speaker 1: would suggests this level of violence or depravity.

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Speaker 2: Now let's fast forward almost exactly twelve months to March eighteenth,

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three. We're almost a year out now from

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Speaker 2: the discovery of Susan Burdett's body in the course of

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Speaker 2: police investigations. That's a lifetime, and this is the only

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Speaker 2: unsolved homicide from nineteen ninety two.

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Speaker 1: Tana Pora is seventeen years old. Now he still has

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Speaker 1: that babyface, but his police record has grown. During a

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Speaker 1: routine interview with Tana about a car theft, police get

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Speaker 1: an anonymous phone tip about Susan Burdett's murder. This caller

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Speaker 1: links the murder to a local gang called the Mongrel Mob,

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Speaker 1: a gang Tana is rumored to have connections with, so

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Speaker 1: the police decide to keep him at the station for questioning.

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Speaker 1: His interrogation begins at nine and continues for the next

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Speaker 1: four days.

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Speaker 2: The police have Tana Pora in the interrogation room and

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Speaker 2: he's telling multiple different stories. The stories don't make any sense,

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Speaker 2: and it's not an interrogation with banging of the table

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Speaker 2: or raised voices or threats or even promises to unite.

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Speaker 3: A comment that you're gonna tell us more?

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Speaker 2: Is that correct? Okay? Well, tell us this is a

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Speaker 2: seventeen year old kid who is highly suggestible and eager

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Speaker 2: to please the authorities. They're plying him with cigarettes and

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Speaker 2: fast food and drinks.

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Speaker 3: You had spring raw buckdog chips and drink.

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Speaker 2: Is that correct?

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Speaker 1: The detectives even mentioned twenty thousand dollars as a reward

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Speaker 1: for information about Susan Burdett's rape and murder. Tana's story

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Speaker 1: keeps evolving and the camera keeps getting turned on and off.

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Speaker 2: You said you were going to tell us everything first.

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Speaker 1: Tana tells the police that he drove two other men

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Speaker 1: to Susan's house and waited outside while they went into attacker.

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Speaker 2: Are you telling us about a person called dog raping

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Speaker 2: this woman? Did you hear any more or see any more?

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Speaker 2: I was outside in the carabeene.

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Speaker 1: Eventually he changes that story.

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Speaker 3: I thought what you've said so fair that you climbed

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Speaker 3: it in the bedroom window and you've gone through to

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Speaker 3: open the door up for the other two.

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Speaker 1: All right, Now he's climbing in through one of Susan

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Speaker 1: Burdett's windows and letting the other two in through the

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Speaker 1: front door.

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Speaker 2: And you were in there.

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Speaker 1: You could see quite clearly what was happening, Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Okay? I was just watching and you were just watching, okay.

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Speaker 1: And in the end, after four days, Tana confesses to

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Speaker 1: being in the room, to actually holding Susan down while

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Speaker 1: his two associates raped her.

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Speaker 2: And you were in the room some other's time while

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Speaker 2: this was happening.

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Speaker 3: Is it right? You were holding Susan down.

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Speaker 2: And that last story, the one that ultimately seals Tana's fate.

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Speaker 2: It comes after a break in the tea room, where

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Speaker 2: of course, the cameras are turned off at.

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Speaker 1: The suggestion of the police. Tana identifies this to supposed

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Speaker 1: accomplices as senior members of the Mongrel Mob, that local gang.

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Speaker 1: The police bring in those two individuals that Tana had named,

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Speaker 1: but their DNA doesn't match the DNA found on Susan's body,

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Speaker 1: they're cleared and they're released. Things don't go as smoothly

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Speaker 1: for Tana. He's arrested based on his confession. He's charged

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Speaker 1: with Susan Burdette's rape and murder, and fourteen long months later,

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Speaker 1: prosecutors try Tana Porra for participating in the murder of

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Speaker 1: Susan Burdett along with two unknown accomplices.

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Speaker 2: And let's stop right here for a minute. This is

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Speaker 2: round one of the battle of these two titans of evidence,

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Speaker 2: confessions versus DNA. DNA seemed to clear Tanapora of any

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Speaker 2: rolling this crime, but it's the confessions that ultimately lead

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Speaker 2: to his conviction.

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Speaker 1: On June sixteenth, nineteen ninety four, a jury took less

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Speaker 1: than ninety minutes to Convictaan Apora of rape and murder.

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Speaker 1: He received a life sentence and was shipped off to prison.

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Speaker 1: At the same time, the New Zealand Police are beginning

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Speaker 1: a focused investigation into six rapes that had occurred between

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight and nineteen ninety two in the Auckland area,

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Speaker 1: including Susan Burdette's rape. Now, these attacks were all similar

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Speaker 1: enough that some police officers began to worry that they

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Speaker 1: had a serial rapist on their hands. All of them

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Speaker 1: involved a lone wolf attacker who broke into women's homes,

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Speaker 1: wrapped their heads in blankets or duveys, and repositioned them

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Speaker 1: so that they lay sideways across the edge of the

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Speaker 1: bed during the attack. And by April nineteen ninety six,

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Speaker 1: a few years after Tana's conviction, the investigation into these

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Speaker 1: rapes linked them all, including Susan Burdett's attack, to the

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Speaker 1: DNA of the same person, a man named Malcolm Raywa.

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Speaker 2: Now who is Malcolm Rewa? First of all, he's twenty

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Speaker 2: years older than Tana Porra. And while I usually try

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Speaker 2: to avoid characterizing my fellow humans like this, Raywa is

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Speaker 2: a monster. He's a terrifying figure, a prolific serial rapist.

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Speaker 1: He's the kind of predator that women worry about. He's

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Speaker 1: the worst nightmare. Raywak committed his first rape in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. His wife was in labor giving birth to

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Speaker 1: their child at the time, so Raywa took the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to sexually assault a nurse in a hospital bed. Unbelievable

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Speaker 1: four and.

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Speaker 2: A half years in prison he spent for that awful crime.

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Speaker 1: So he gets out of prison and apparently rapes again.

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Speaker 1: From then on, over the dozens of rapes that he

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Speaker 1: went on to commit, rey Wa started developing a pattern

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Speaker 1: an mo O. He'd carefully select his victims who tended

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Speaker 1: to be single women, professionals who were home alone. He'd

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Speaker 1: stake out their homes in advance and plan his attacks meticulously,

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Speaker 1: and then always the same thing, a surprise attack after

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Speaker 1: the woman had fallen asleep, a physical attack first to

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Speaker 1: subdue her, then the blanket or duvet around her head,

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Speaker 1: and a rape at the side of the bed.

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Speaker 2: And Raya would hide in their homes. He would wait

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Speaker 2: for them to get into bed and begin to fall asleep,

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Speaker 2: and then he would attack.

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Speaker 1: Ray Wall apparently suffered from a rectile dysfunction, which is

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Speaker 1: why he positioned his victims in a way that allowed

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Speaker 1: him to maintain sexual contact during his attacks. That's also

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Speaker 1: why he acted alone. He didn't exactly want an audience.

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Speaker 1: Ray was arrested on May thirteenth, nineteen ninety six. It's

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Speaker 1: a pretty dramatic sting operation. Actually, the police had been

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Speaker 1: planning this for quite some time. When he tries to

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Speaker 1: run police dogs wrestle this guy to the ground. Now,

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Speaker 1: the police remember that Tana Pora had already confessed to

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Speaker 1: one of the rapes to which Reywa is tied by DNA,

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Speaker 1: so they immediately ask him if he knows Tana Pura.

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Speaker 1: Raywa is crystal clear never met him. Based on the

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Speaker 1: arrest of Malcolm Rawa, the Court of Appeals throws out

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Speaker 1: Tana's conviction in nineteen ninety nine.

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Speaker 2: Never met him. Now, at this point in time, where

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Speaker 2: you have a prolific serial rapist operating in the same

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Speaker 2: neighborhood as the Burdette murder and his DNA is at

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Speaker 2: the crime scene and he's telling you I don't know Tanapura,

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Speaker 2: most prosecutors and police officers would throw their hands up

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Speaker 2: and say we can't go forward with the reprosecution of

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Speaker 2: Tana Pura. We have to free him.

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Speaker 1: But instead Tana is retried, and if you've listened to

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Speaker 1: this podcast, you know what's coming. Prosecutors change their theory

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Speaker 1: of the case and argue at Tana's second trial that

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Speaker 1: he and Rewa raped and killed Susan Burdett together, even

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Speaker 1: though Rewa had denied knowing Tana, even though Reywa always

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Speaker 1: acted alone, and even though Rewa would never have wanted

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Speaker 1: some teenager there to witness his sexual dysfunction.

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Speaker 2: So now we have round two of a battle between

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Speaker 2: confession evidence and DNA evidence, except this time we know

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Speaker 2: whose DNA it is. It's the DNA of a serial

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Speaker 2: rapist named Malcolm Rewa. Will Tana's confession bring him down

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Speaker 2: or will the jury side with the science and recognize

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Speaker 2: that Tana Pora and Malcolm Rewa had never met?

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Speaker 1: Sure enough, despite all hopes that the DNA evidence would

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Speaker 1: be an enough to clear Tana, Tana was convicted a

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Speaker 1: second time of raping and murdering Susan Burdett and sent

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Speaker 1: back to his life sentence. Meanwhile, Malcolm Rewa himself stood

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Speaker 1: trial for three months in nineteen ninety eight on what

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Speaker 1: amounted to forty five counts of rape involving twenty seven

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Speaker 1: different women. His trial ended with convictions for sexually assaulting

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Speaker 1: twenty five of them, including Susan Burdett. Just like Tana,

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Speaker 1: he was shipped off to prison for decades. Now, this

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Speaker 1: is justice for Rewa, but for Tana Porra it's anything but.

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Speaker 1: And for years Tana served as time with little hope

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Speaker 1: of freedom, and things might have stayed bleak for him

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Speaker 1: had it not been for a man named Tim McKinnell.

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Speaker 2: Now who is.

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Speaker 3: Tim McKinnell at the moment in time is self employed,

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Speaker 3: private and vistigator. But when I finished university I joined

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Speaker 3: the police. As a twenty two year old.

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Speaker 2: Tim mckinnall started out his career as a cop, A

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Speaker 2: good cop, one of the best cops hoops. Tim had

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Speaker 2: become a member of the South Auckland Police Force in

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Speaker 2: the late nineteen nineties, eventually rising to junior detective by

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Speaker 2: the year two thousand. That year, the force had been

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Speaker 2: divided over the case of Tanapura.

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Speaker 3: A lot of chat went on and the police bar

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Speaker 3: at the time, and there was a real disconnect between

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Speaker 3: two different groups of people. People that thought Tana Porter

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Speaker 3: was a guilty man and had been involved in the

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Speaker 3: ripe and murder of Susan Beidett, and there was another

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Speaker 3: camp of experienced police officers who thought that he was

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Speaker 3: an innocent man.

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Speaker 2: In fact, Tim remembers seeing all manner of drunken arguments

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Speaker 2: at police bars and he was struck by the passion

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Speaker 2: of those who believed in Tanapura.

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Speaker 1: Tim never forgot those arguments or his own growing doubt

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Speaker 1: about Tana's guilt even after he eventually left the police force,

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Speaker 1: and as many retired officers do, he became a private investigator.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand and seven, Tim attended a local conference

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Speaker 1: on wrongful convictions and false confessions, and that conference brought

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Speaker 1: up those old, lingering questions that Tim had about Tana's case.

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Speaker 1: The last straw came when Tim was diagnosed in his

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Speaker 1: thirties with a rare blood disorder, not exactly a death sentence,

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Speaker 1: but the kind of health scare that led him to

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Speaker 1: reevaluate his priorities and seek out more meaningful work like

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Speaker 1: freeing the innocent. Eventually, Tim decided to take the plunge.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, he visited Tana Pora, who

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Speaker 1: was then thirty four years old in prison. Tana was

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Speaker 1: no longer that teenage car thief Tim had read about.

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Speaker 1: He was polite, well mannered, surprisingly gentle, even warm. Tim

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Speaker 1: begins to feel an urge to help this guy.

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Speaker 2: But there's the matter of Tana's confession. Tim starts by

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Speaker 2: digging up videotapes of Tana's interrogation, and they're not easy

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Speaker 2: to find. They're on old VHS tapes in boxes in

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Speaker 2: police departments. But he gets them and he sits down

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Speaker 2: to watch them, and he is blown away by what

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Speaker 2: he saw.

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Speaker 3: When you examine what he was able to say on

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Speaker 3: day one, in the first few interviews on tape, and

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Speaker 3: you compare that to what he was able to say

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Speaker 3: four days later, there are marked differences. There were some

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Speaker 3: very particular things that happened in Susan's house that the

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Speaker 3: offender would know, and it's clear from the interviews that

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Speaker 3: Tana Porter had no idea about any of them.

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Speaker 1: Despite four days worth of trying, Tina just was not

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Speaker 1: able to tell a story that matched what actually happened.

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Speaker 1: When police asked him to describe Susan Burdette, he says

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Speaker 1: she was chubby, even though she was actually quite athletic.

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Speaker 1: Tina is asked to draw a picture of how he

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Speaker 1: left Susan's body. Remember she'd been found horizontally with her

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Speaker 1: legs dangling over the side of the bed, but he

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Speaker 1: draws her lying vertically on the bed. When he was

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Speaker 1: asked whether there was anything special about Susan's bed, Tena

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Speaker 1: can't come up with the fact that it was a

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Speaker 1: wider bat.

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Speaker 3: And so one of the questions that arises about that

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Speaker 3: is how did he come to know things on day

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Speaker 3: four that he didn't know on day one.

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Speaker 1: The interrogators take Tina on a field trip to Susan

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Speaker 1: Burdett's street so that he can point out details of

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Speaker 1: the crime to them in person, and they videotaped the

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Speaker 1: whole thing.

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Speaker 3: He started giving them directions that were taking them away

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Speaker 3: from her house, so they helpfully tried to direct him

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Speaker 3: back towards her house. It was pretty clear on tape

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Speaker 3: that he still had no idea where he was going

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Speaker 3: and wasn't able to identify anything familiar. In the end,

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Speaker 3: they took him to the outside of the house where

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Speaker 3: Susan had been raped murdered and asked him if he

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Speaker 3: recognized anything, and again he didn't, so the police officer

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Speaker 3: and it's really chilling, really chilling to watch it. He said, Look,

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Speaker 3: it's clear you don't recognize what it is you're looking for,

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Speaker 3: So do you think it would help if I showed

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Speaker 3: you house? And that's an extraordinary thing for a police

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Speaker 3: officer to do.

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Speaker 2: For Tim, that's it. This was a false confession. He

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Speaker 2: was motivated, fired up, and he would not rest until

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Speaker 2: Tina Poora was cleared. But he needs to present more

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Speaker 2: evidence to the lawyers and other people he wants to

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Speaker 2: get involved in this case.

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Speaker 3: So Tana's case isn't one that was only scarred by

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Speaker 3: false confession. There were the other issues that were beginning

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Speaker 3: to arise with the involvement of Tana's family.

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Speaker 2: Tina's cousin became a key witness for the prosecution against Tana.

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Speaker 2: She claimed that she had seen Tina with Rewa on

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Speaker 2: multiple occasions, including once at Tina's girlfriend's home.

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Speaker 1: But Tim was able to discredit Martha's testimony.

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Speaker 3: There was evidence of paid witnesses, including his cousin and

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Speaker 3: his auntie. Those family members gave evidence against him, and

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Speaker 3: we know that at least one of them was paid

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Speaker 3: five thousand dollars for her trouble.

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Speaker 1: Tim tracks down Fiona, Tina's girlfriend, and Fiona says that

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Speaker 1: she has no idea who Malcolm Rawell was and that

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Speaker 1: he was never in her home. From his time on

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Speaker 1: the police force, Tim was well acquainted with the various

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Speaker 1: gangs operating around South Auckland, so for him, one piece

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Speaker 1: of the prosecution's argument was clearly ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: Malcolm Rawa was a senior member of the Highway sixty

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Speaker 3: one Motorcycle Club Mortal enemies of the Mongrel Mob, and

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Speaker 3: Sotana Porter as somebody who was supposedly involved with the

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Speaker 3: Mungrel Mob going to Susan Burdette's house late one night

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Speaker 3: with a senior member of the Highway sixty ones to

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Speaker 3: commit a brutal rape and murder. Anybody that knows anything

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Speaker 3: about gang culture in New Zealand will tell you that

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Speaker 3: that's just nonsense.

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Speaker 1: Tim doesn't stop there. He also starts assembling an all

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Speaker 1: star team of experts, starting with an Icelandic professor and

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Speaker 1: former detective himself, Geesley good Johnson, who was a professor

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Speaker 1: by that time in London. Now Geasley essentially created the

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Speaker 1: field of falls confession science. He's the father of everything

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Speaker 1: we're talking about during this podcast. And after Tim sends

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Speaker 1: him Tane's interrogation videos, Gezley agrees to write a report

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Speaker 1: deconstructing Tana's statements and deeming them unreliable.

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Speaker 2: Next, Tim enlists the help of respected local New Zealand

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Speaker 2: journalist named Phil Taylor. Phil had questioned the stage case

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Speaker 2: against Tana for years and is happy to help, and

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Speaker 2: Phil delivers in twenty twelve as the case for Tana's

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Speaker 2: innocence is building. Phil releases a bombshell article titled Innocent

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Speaker 2: Man in Jail for twenty Years, and in it, Chook Henwood,

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Speaker 2: the detective who had developed the original criminal profile of

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Speaker 2: Malcolm Rewa, says the cops got it horribly wrong in

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Speaker 2: Susan Burdett's case. Tana had nothing to do with this. Now,

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Speaker 2: this is a huge deal because chuk Henwood is the

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Speaker 2: most famous criminal profiler in New Zealand, a bit like

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Speaker 2: John Douglas of The Mind Hunter fame.

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Speaker 3: For somebody like chuk Henwood to come out and express

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Speaker 3: a family held conviction that Tana Porter was innocent was

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Speaker 3: hugely important in terms of public perception and momentum for

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Speaker 3: our appeal work on Tana's case.

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Speaker 2: And in the middle of this, there's this remarkable moment

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Speaker 2: when Susan Burdett's brother Jim comes forward and says, I

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Speaker 2: too believe that Tana Pora is innocent, and he actually

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Speaker 2: meets with Tana Pora. It's this incredible moment of reconciliation

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Speaker 2: and grace.

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Speaker 1: Momentum is building across the board, but there's still one

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Speaker 1: more piece. Can Tim provide a better understanding, a better

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Speaker 1: explanation of why Tana confessed to a crime he didn't commit.

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Speaker 3: Documentary make it called Michael Bennett making a documentary about

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Speaker 3: Tana's case. Perhaps the most significant development in twenty years

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Speaker 3: occurred because the person that had been watching it was

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Speaker 3: a woman called doctor Valerie McGinn.

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Speaker 1: Doctor McGinn provides Tim with the answer he needs. She

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Speaker 1: writes reports saying, your clients, mister Tana Pora sounds very

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Speaker 1: similar to many people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. She

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Speaker 1: even attaches a journal article that details how individuals with

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Speaker 1: FASD are at an increased risk of getting arrested.

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Speaker 3: And more importantly, people that have it can be impulsive,

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Speaker 3: They suggestible, they eager to please figures of authority, and

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Speaker 3: so when you look at those types of behaviors and

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Speaker 3: then you consider the position Taaner was in when he

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Speaker 3: was in the police station in nineteen ninety three, it

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Speaker 3: almost makes it inevitable that he was going to confess

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Speaker 3: to something.

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Speaker 1: Doctor mcginnon confirms categorically that Tena suffers from an FASD disorder,

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Speaker 1: he was uniquely susceptible to falsely confessing in the interrogation room.

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Speaker 3: One of the things that really bothered me about Tana's

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Speaker 3: case is we could never understand why he did what

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Speaker 3: he did, the things he said, and the people he implicated.

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Speaker 3: It just none of it made sense to us and

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Speaker 3: we couldn't explain that to the courts. And so once

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Speaker 3: we got this diagnosis of feder work whole spectrum disorder,

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Speaker 3: it all became clear. It was the final piece of

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Speaker 3: the puzzle and we finally understood what it was we

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Speaker 3: were dealing with.

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Speaker 1: And that does it. All the pieces are assembled for

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Speaker 1: Tim and his team to appeal Tena's conviction, and they

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Speaker 1: bring the case in November of twenty fourteen to the

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Speaker 1: Privy Council in London, the final Court of Appeal where

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Speaker 1: Commonwealth countries like New Zealand can bring cases like Tena's.

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Speaker 2: It's the court of last resort and it's staffed with

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00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 2: senior judge some of the best and brightest minds in

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00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 2: the entire Commonwealth.

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00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:59,400
Speaker 1: Now this is Tina's last shot, and his lawyers put

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00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: his fa SD disorder at the front of their case,

439
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:05,680
Speaker 1: arguing that judges in the nineteen ninety four and two

440
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,959
Speaker 1: thousand trials weren't aware of his disability and if they

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00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 1: had been, they would have ruled differently.

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00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:12,719
Speaker 3: There was a big group of people that gathered at

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00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 3: Michael Bennett, the documentary maker's house, waiting for that decision

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00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 3: to be announced, and it was an extraordinary moment. We

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00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:21,119
Speaker 3: only got to tell Taneer about an hour before the

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00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 3: whole world found out that he had his conviction quashed

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00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:27,120
Speaker 3: and he was no longer a rapist and murderer. It

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00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 3: was incredibly emotional for him.

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00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 1: On March third, twenty fifteen, in the case of Poorra

450
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 1: versus the Queen, the Council of rules that Tina's confessions

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00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:43,320
Speaker 1: must be thrown out and they quashed his conviction for

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00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:46,560
Speaker 1: the rape and murder of Susan Burdett. Two weeks later,

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00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:51,240
Speaker 1: the Crown prosecutors dropped their case and declined to retry Tina,

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00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 1: and after more than twenty years, Tina Porra was officially exonerated.

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00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,119
Speaker 3: You know what his first concern was for was for

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00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 3: the police officers that had interviewed him. He didn't want

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00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:05,360
Speaker 3: their reputations to be tarnished because of what had happened.

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00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,440
Speaker 3: One of his first thoughts was for other people, and

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00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 3: that was pretty cool.

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00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 1: In so many of these wrongful conviction cases, you see

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00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: people go through so much pain and They have every

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00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: rate to be better, resentful, angry, all of those things,

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00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 1: but so often you see them express, at least publicly,

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00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,400
Speaker 1: these incredible acts of grace. It's almost as though they've

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00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:29,119
Speaker 1: lived through so much pain they don't want to cause anymore.

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00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,399
Speaker 2: In twenty sixteen, Tina received a sum of money to

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00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,159
Speaker 2: compensate him for the time he had spent in prison

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00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 2: for a crime he did not commit. He also received

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00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 2: an apology from the New Zealand government.

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00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,159
Speaker 3: Tyana grew up in prison. He was there for twenty

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00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 3: two years and he struggles every day. We keep in contact,

472
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 3: but life isn't great for him. The money makes some

473
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:56,719
Speaker 3: things easier, but it doesn't repair the psychological damage. It

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00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 3: doesn't bring the years back, and it doesn't his life

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00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:06,880
Speaker 3: easy now. It is incredibly difficult to watch him struggle

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00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:08,880
Speaker 3: through life after everything he's been through.

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00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: Tana, we salute your sheer endurance, your will to keep

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00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: on fighting and surviving and living through this ordeal from

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00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 1: the other side of the planet. Know that we won't

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00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 1: forget your name or what you've been through, and all

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00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:25,600
Speaker 1: of us together we're fighting to make sure it doesn't

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00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: happen again. And that's the story of Tana Pora. Next

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00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:36,399
Speaker 1: week's episode takes us to El Paso, Texas, where a

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00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,920
Speaker 1: total stranger became invested in the case of Daniel Viegas

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00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: and turned out to be a savior. Till then, Thanks

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00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 1: for listening. Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions is the production of

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00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 1: Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One.

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00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 1: Special thanks to our executive producer Jason and the team

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00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 1: at Signal Company Number One. Executive producer Kevin wardis senior

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00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:09,240
Speaker 1: producer and Pope, and additional production and editing by Connor Hall.

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00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,400
Speaker 1: Our music was composed by Jay Ralph. You can follow

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00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 1: me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura Nyrider, and you.

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00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 2: Can follow me on Twitter at s Drizzen.

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00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:24,160
Speaker 1: For more information on the show, visit wrongfulconvictionpodcast dot com

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00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 1: and be sure to follow the show on Instagram at

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00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on

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00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 1: Twitter at wrong Conviction