WEBVTT - #372 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Teina Pora 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:06.320 Hey there, it's Laura and I writer. I am here 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:08.160 with an update on a case we shared with you 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.959 back in Season one of False Confessions. It's the story 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.120 of Tana Porra, which is perhaps the most famous wrongful 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:19.200 conviction in New Zealand. Shortly after our episode aired, New 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.840 Zealand officially opened the Criminal Cases Review Commission or CCRC 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:29.640 to investigate other possible wrongful convictions. Like Conviction Integrity Units 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:33.839 here in the US, the CCRC will reinvestigate cases and 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.560 present its findings to the court, which will then weigh 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.240 the evidence and grant relief if they see fit. Since 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.600 the CCRC began operation in New Zealand in twenty twenty, 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.160 the work of its investigators has led to one exoneration 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.479 already and three more seem likely in the near future. 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.080 This is a hugely positive step in New Zealand, where 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.440 justice can move really slowly and exonerations like these have 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:01.560 been exceedingly rare. But with the CEA CRC, true justice 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:10.959 seems a lot closer at hand. Welcome to wrongful conviction, 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.400 False Confessions. I'm Laura and I Writer. 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:14.520 And I'm Steve Drissen. 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.520 So far we've told you false confession stories that span 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.560 the United States, from urban Chicago to rural Nebraska. Today, 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.480 we'll take you across the globe to New Zealand with 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.160 a story that still hits way too close to home. 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.199 A sixteen year old boy who confessed to a rape 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.800 and murder he didn't commit. His wrongful conviction allowed the 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:40.200 real offender, a prolific serial rapist, to assault dozens of 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:57.000 other women, while a teenager languished behind bars after making 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.160 a murder. Came out season two, Steve and I have 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.560 had an opportunity to travel around the globe talking to 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.920 audiences about the problem of false confessions and the need 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.560 for criminal justice reform. We've spoken everywhere from the United 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:12.280 States to the United Kingdom, to Ireland to Australia. You 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.119 remember this guy, Steve, who traveled around Australia with us. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.080 Oh God, this guy, this guy was beautiful. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:19.480 What was his name, Jimond? 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:23.519 His name was Simon. Simon. Simon was like a roadie 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:28.720 from the nineteen seventies, always wearing black T shirts and 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.200 deep into the heavy metal scene. 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.280 Somehow, poor Simon gets assigned to the lawyers who are 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:36.960 traveling around talking about false confessions. One of my personal 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:38.919 points of pride though, is that by the end of 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.160 this trip around Australia, he seemed to like what we 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.120 were trying to do, so we had a great time 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.359 with him. But Simon kept asking us, as did everybody 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.440 else we met around Australia. Have you heard about Tana Pora? 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.919 Have you heard about New Zealand's Brendon Dassy? And that's 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:55.400 exactly who Tana is. 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.200 Police officers around the world are often trained in very 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:03.680 similar ways about how to interrogate suspects, and so I 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:08.359 expected and was beginning to discover false confessions in places 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:14.600 like Japan and Korea and other Commonwealth countries like Australia 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:16.720 and New Zealand and Canada. 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:21.360 These are stories that hit home around the globe, whether 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.880 it's for you know, social justice driven lawyers or heavy 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.800 metal roadies. You know Tanapora, Brendan Dassy. We all know 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.000 someone vulnerable like them, and we can all see the 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:39.040 need to do justice in cases like these. Tanapora's story 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.800 starts about eight thousand miles away from where Steve and 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.760 I are sitting right now in the United States. It 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.920 starts in South Auckland. That's an urban area on the 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.480 southern edge of New Zealand's largest city, Auckland. It's home 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:56.320 to a large minority population, including Maureed's, the indigenous Polynesian 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.800 population of New Zealand. Parts of South Auckland can have 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:04.400 no negative connotations. Too often it's associated with poverty and crime. 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.520 When our story starts in nineteen ninety two, South Auckland 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.000 was home to a thirty nine year old woman named 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.960 Susan Burdette. Susan lived alone in a tidy house on 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.360 Paw Road. She worked days as an account's clerk at 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.520 a chemical manufacturing company, and on the evening of March 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.160 twenty third, nineteen ninety two, Susan leaves her weekly bowling 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.039 league meet up and drives home under a night of 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:33.520 beautiful stars. Susan's a hard worker, so when she doesn't 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.200 show up at work the next few days, her colleagues 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.520 get concerned. They call her friend Steve eventually to find 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.960 out if he knows where she is. Steve gets worried 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.520 and he ends up going over to Susan's house that Wednesday, 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.279 March twenty fifth, at about twelve forty pm. He finds 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.880 the front door unlocked, goes inside and is greeted with 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:57.560 a horrible sight. Susan is lying horizontally on her waterbed 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:01.120 and she's clearly dead. The upper half of her body 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.160 is wrapped in a duvet and there's a wooden baseball 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.000 bat lying on the bed next to her. Her legs 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.279 are dangling off the side of the bed and they're crossed. 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:15.279 Someone whoever did this had positioned her that way. The 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.080 police arrived, they remove the duvet and they find that 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.960 Susan had been beaten badly about the head, very likely 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.080 with the baseball bat. She'd also been sexually assaulted, and 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.840 there's plenty of DNA left behind seamen, as well as 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.800 a bloody smudge mark on a light switch. Susan's hands 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.559 were covered with defensive wounds, which indicates that she'd fought 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.919 back against her attacker, and her friends later identified the 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.240 baseball bat as belonging to Susan. She had kept it 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.360 next to her bed for her own protection. The police 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:49.280 begin by investigating Susan's other friends, but DNA and alibis 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.839 clear them all and the investigation quickly stalls. The pressure 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.880 is building building, that is until about a week after 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.200 the murder. That's when police get a call from a 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:02.679 woman named Garry McLaughlin, and she tells them a story 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:06.480 about her then sixteen year old nephew, a shaggy haired, 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.800 baby faced mawory kid named Tana Pora. 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.480 Well, let's talk about Tana for a bit. Tana had 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.920 it rough growing up. His mother died when he was 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.919 a young boy, and his father left shortly afterwards. He 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.520 then got passed around from family member to family member 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.400 and ultimately ended up in his aunt Terry's house. 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.520 A few days after Susan Burdett's murder made headlines, Tana 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.000 and some friends found a baseball bat in the local 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.719 park and they were joking about it being the murder weapon. 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.799 Back at Aunt Terry's house, Tana kept talking about the bat. 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:42.560 Tana had a history of run ins with the law, 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.680 nothing really serious, but enough for Terry to want him 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.000 out of her house. She called the police over and over, 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:54.839 insisting that Tana knew something about Susan Burdett's murder. But 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.800 police quickly come to the conclusion that Tana and his 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.479 buddies were just over excited teens who are talking shit. 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.520 They interview Tana, they take his DNA, They even execute 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.880 a search warrant, but Tana and his friends are ruled 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:13.800 out conclusively as Susan Burdett's killers. The DNA doesn't match, 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:17.040 the search warrant turns up nothing, and while tana does 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:19.680 have a record, there is nothing in his background that 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.240 would suggests this level of violence or depravity. 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:26.720 Now, let's fast forward almost exactly twelve months to March eighteenth, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.760 nineteen ninety three. We're almost a year out now from 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.200 the discovery of Susan Burdett's body. In the course of 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:38.240 police investigations. That's a lifetime and this is the only 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.560 unsolved homicide from nineteen ninety two. 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.200 Tana Pora is seventeen years old. Now he still has 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.960 that babyface, but his police record has grown. During a 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.360 routine interview with Tana about a car theft, police get 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.920 an anonymous phone tip about Susan Burdett's murder. This caller 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.800 links the murder to a local gang called the mongrel 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.160 Agang Tana is rumored to have connections with, so the 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:07.040 police decide to keep him at the station for questioning. 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:11.240 His interrogation begins at nine am and continues for the 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:12.720 next four days. 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.920 The police have Tana Pora in the interrogation room and 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:23.200 he's telling multiple different stories. The stories don't make any sense. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.760 It's not an interrogation with banging of the table or 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:30.960 raised voices or threats or even promises. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:35.480 To unite a comment that you're gonna tell us more? 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:37.840 Is that correct? Okay? 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.559 Well, tell us this is a seventeen year old kid 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:46.280 who is highly suggestible and eager to please the authorities. 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:51.120 They're applying him with cigarettes and fast food and drinks. 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:56.480 You head spring raw bodog chips and drink. Is that correct? 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.840 The detectives even mentioned twenty thousand dollars as a reward 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:03.880 for information about Susan Burdette's rape and murder. Tana's story 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:08.000 keeps evolving, and the camera keeps getting turned on and off. 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.120 You said you were going to tell us everything. 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.400 First, Tana tells the police that he drove two other 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.600 men to Susan's house and waited outside while they went 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:17.280 into attacker. 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.560 Are you telling us about a person called dog raping 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.760 this woman? Did you hear any more or see any more? 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:27.160 It's outside in the caravan. 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:29.280 Eventually he changes that story. 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.400 I thought what you've said so fair that you've climbed 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.000 it in the bedroom window and you've gone through to 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:36.640 open the door up for the other two. 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.360 All right, now he's climbing in through one of Susan 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:42.959 Burdette's windows and letting the other two in through the 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:43.480 front door. 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.880 And you were inlier. You could see quite clearly what 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.160 was happening, Is that right? Okay? 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:51.880 I was just watching and you. 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:52.600 Were just watching. 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.640 And in the end, after four days, Tana confesses to 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.320 being in the room, to actually holding Susan down while 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:01.880 his two associates raped her. 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:03.600 And you were in the room some of this time 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.800 while this was happening. Is that right? You are holding 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:08.240 Susan dan? 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.679 And that last story, the one that ultimately seals Tana's fate. 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.680 It comes after a break in the tea room, where 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.440 of course, the cameras are turned off at. 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.360 The suggestion of the police. Tana identifies this too supposed 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.839 accomplices as senior members of the Mongrel Mob, that local gang. 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.000 The police bring in those two individuals that Tana had named, 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.880 but their DNA doesn't match the DNA found on Susan's body. 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:39.320 They're cleared and they're released. Things don't go as smoothly 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.640 for Tana. He's arrested based on his confession. He's charged 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:48.400 with Susan Burdett's rape and murder, and fourteen long months later, 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.680 prosecutors try Tana Porra for participating in the murder of 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.720 Susan Burdett along with two unknown accomplices. 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:58.400 And let's stop right here for a minute. This is 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.679 round one of the battle of these two titans of evidence, 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:09.320 confessions versus DNA. DNA seemed to clear Tanapora of any 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:14.319 role in this crime, but it's the confessions that ultimately 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.320 lead to his conviction. 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.400 On June sixteenth, nineteen ninety four, a jury took less 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.680 than ninety minutes to convictaan Apora of rape and murder. 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.240 He received a life sentence and was shipped off to prison. 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.560 At the same time, the New Zealand Police are beginning 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.920 a focused investigation into six rapes that had occurred between 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.959 nineteen eighty eight and nineteen ninety two in the Auckland area, 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:52.160 including Susan Burdette's rape. Now, these attacks were all similar 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.280 enough that some police officers began to worry that they 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.480 had a serial rapist on their hands. All of them 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.520 involved a lone wolf attacker who broke into women's homes, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.719 wrapped their heads in blankets or duveys and repositioned them 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.040 so that they lay sideways across the edge of the 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:13.280 bed during the attack. And by April nineteen ninety six, 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:17.160 a few years after Tana's conviction, the investigation into these 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:22.040 rapes linked them all, including Susan Burdett's attack, to the 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:28.160 DNA of the same person, a man named Malcolm Raywa. 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.760 Now, who is Malcolm Rewa? First of all, he's twenty 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.800 years older than Tana Porra. And while I usually try 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.400 to avoid characterizing my fellow humans like this, Raywa is 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:46.200 a monster. He's a terrifying figure, a prolific serial rapist. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.040 He's the kind of predator that women worry about. He's 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:51.400 the worst nightmare. 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:55.200 Raywak committed his first rape in the nineteen seventies. His 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.920 wife was in labor giving birth to their child at 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.520 the time, so Raywa took the oppertains unity to sexually 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.120 assault a nurse in a hospital bed. 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:06.040 Unbelievable four and a. 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.160 Half years in prison he spent for that awful crime. 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.560 So Raywah gets out of prison and apparently rapes again 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.480 from then on. Over the dozens of rapes that he 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.360 went on to commit, Raywa started developing a pattern an 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.120 m O. He'd carefully select his victims, who tended to 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.559 be single women, professionals who were home alone. He'd stake 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.199 out their homes in advance and plan his attacks meticulously, 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.480 and then always the same thing, a surprise attack after 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.360 the woman had fallen asleep, a physical attack first to 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.000 subdue her, then the blanket or duvet around her head, 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:42.599 and a rape at the side of the bed. 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.520 And raa would hide in their homes. He would wait 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:50.080 for them to get into bed and begin to fall asleep, 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:51.600 and then he would attack. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.760 Raywa apparently suffered from a rectile dysfunction, which is why 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.679 he positioned his victims in a way that allowed him 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.439 to maintain sexual coind during his attacks. That's also why 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:06.480 he acted alone. He didn't exactly want an audience. Ray 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:10.360 was arrested on May thirteenth, nineteen ninety six. It's a 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.560 pretty dramatic sting operation. Actually, the police had been planning 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.000 this for quite some time. When he tries to run, 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.680 police dogs wrestle this guy to the ground. Now, the 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.920 police remember that Tanapora had already confessed to one of 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.440 the rapes, to which Reywa is tied by DNA, so 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.800 they immediately ask him if he knows Tana Pora. Reywa 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:36.800 is crystal clear never met him. Based on the arrest 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.080 of Malcolm Rawa, the Court of Appeals throws out Tana's 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:41.560 conviction in nineteen ninety. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.920 Nine, never met him. Now, at this point in time, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.720 where you have a prolific serial rapist operating in the 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:53.120 same neighborhood as the Burdette murder and his DNA is 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.960 at the crime scene and he's telling you I don't 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:01.200 know Tanapura, most prosecutors and police officers would throw their 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.240 hands up and say we can't go forward with a 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:07.520 reprosecution of Tana Pora. We have to free him. 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:11.360 But instead Tana is retried, and if you've listened to 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:16.160 this podcast, you know what's coming. Prosecutors change their theory 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.520 of the case and argue at Tana's second trial that 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:24.480 he and Rewa raped and killed Susan Burdett together, even 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.640 though Rewa had denied knowing Tana, even though Rewa always 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.680 acted alone, and even though Rewa would never have wanted 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:36.120 some teenager there to witness his sexual dysfunction. 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:40.440 So now we have round two of a battle between 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:45.440 confession evidence and DNA evidence, except this time we know 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.080 whose DNA it is. It's the DNA of a serial 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.680 rapist named Malcolm Rewa. Will Tana's confession bring him down? 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.960 Or will the jury side with the science and recognize 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.240 that Tanapora and Malcolm had never met. 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.840 Sure Enough, despite all hopes that the DNA evidence would 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.800 be enough to clear Tana, Tana was convicted a second 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.360 time of raping and murdering Susan Burdette and sent back 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:21.600 to his life sentence. Meanwhile, Malcolm Raywa himself stood trial 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.840 for three months in nineteen ninety eight on what amounted 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:29.800 to forty five counts of rape, involving twenty seven different women. 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.800 His trial ended with convictions for sexually assaulting twenty five 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:38.880 of them, including Susan Burdett. Just like Tana, he was 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.880 shipped off to prison for decades. Now, this is justice 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:46.720 for Rewa, but for Tana Porra it's anything but. And 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.720 for years Tana served as time with little hope of freedom, 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.160 and things might have stayed bleak for him had it 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.480 not been for a man named Tim mckinnal. 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:56.560 Now, who is Tim. 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.760 Mckinnall At the moment, Tom is self employed, private and vistagata. 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.720 But when I finished university. I joined the police as 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:05.120 a twenty two year old. 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.479 Tim McKinnell started out his career as a cup, a 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.680 good cup, one of the best cups. Tim had become 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:14.199 a member of the South Auckland Police Force in the 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:18.760 late nineteen nineties, eventually rising to junior detective by the 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.439 year two thousand. That year, the force had been divided 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.120 over the case of Tanapura. 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.240 A lot of chat went on in the police bar 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:31.000 at the time, and there was a real disconnect between 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.800 two different groups of people. People that thought Tana Porter 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.360 was a guilty man and had been involved in the 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:38.840 rape and murder of Susan Bidett, and there was another 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.919 camp of experienced police officers who thought that he was 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:44.199 an innocent man. 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.560 In fact, Tim remembers seeing all manner of drunken arguments 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.200 at police bars and he was struck by the passion 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.359 of those who believed in Tana Pura. 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.400 Tim never forgot those arguments or his own growing doubt 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.480 about Tana's guilt, even after he eventually left the police force, 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.320 and as many retired officers do, he became a private investigator. 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.720 Now in two thousand and seven, Tim attended a local 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:14.000 conference on wrongful convictions and false confessions, and that conference 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.960 brought up those old, lingering questions that Tim had about 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.520 Tana's case. The last straw came when Tim was diagnosed 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.800 in his thirties with a rare blood disorder, not exactly 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.359 a death sentence, but the kind of health scare that 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.120 led him to reevaluate his priorities and seek out more 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:35.760 meaningful work like freeing the innocent. Eventually, Tim decided to 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.440 take the plunge. In two thousand and nine, he visited 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.080 Tana Pora, who was then thirty four years old in prison. 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.399 Tana was no longer that teenage car thief Tim had 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:52.000 read about. He was polite, well mannered, surprisingly gentle, even warm. 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.520 Tim begins to feel an urge to help this guy. 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.239 But there's the matter of Tana's confession. Tim starts by 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:04.000 digging up videotapes of Tina's interrogation, and they're not easy 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:08.439 to find. They're on old VHS tapes in boxes in 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.280 police departments. But he gets them and he sits down 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:16.080 to watch them, and he is blown away by what 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:16.679 he saw. 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.000 When you examine what he was able to say on 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.600 day one. In the first few interviews on tape, and 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.119 you compare that to what he was able to say 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.919 four days later, there are marked differences. There were some 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.320 very particular things that happened in Susan's house that the 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.160 offender would know, and it's clear from the interviews that 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.480 Tana Porter had no idea about any of them. 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:42.880 Despite four days worth of trying, Tina just was not 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.640 able to tell a story that matched what actually happened. 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.960 When police asked him to describe Susan Burdette, he says 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.080 she was chubby, even though she was actually quite athletic. 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:55.760 Tina is asked to draw a picture of how he 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.320 left Susan's body. Remember she'd been found horizontally with her 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.800 legs dangling over the side of the bed, but he 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:04.040 draws her lying vertically on the bad. 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:05.199 When he was. 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.240 Asked whether there was anything special about Susan's bad, Tina 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:10.440 can't come up with the fact that it was. 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:12.240 A water bad, and so one of the questions that 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:14.359 arises about that is how did he come to know 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.480 things on day four that he didn't know on day one. 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.800 The interrogators take Tina on a field trip to Susan 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:25.960 Burdett's street so that he can point out details of 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.600 the crime to them in person, and they videotaped the 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:29.200 whole thing. 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.320 He started giving them directions that were taking them away 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:36.640 from her house, so though helpfully tried to direct him 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.720 back towards her house, it was pretty clear on tape 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.240 that he still had no idea where he was going 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:47.560 and wasn't able to identify anything familiar. In the end, 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.359 they took him to the outside of the house where 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.000 Susan had been raped murdered and asked him if he 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.520 recognized anything, and again he didn't, so the police officer 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:02.400 and it's really chilling, really chilling to watch it. He said, Look, 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.080 it's clear you don't recognize what it is you're looking for. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:06.760 So do you think it would help if I showed 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:10.679 you house? And that's an extraordinary thing for a police 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:11.280 officer to do. 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.760 For Tim, that's it. This was a false confession. He 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:26.480 was motivated, fired up, and he would not rest until 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:30.920 Tina Poora was cleared. But he needs to present more 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:34.280 evidence to the lawyers and other people he wants to 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:35.760 get involved in this case. 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.080 So Tana's case isn't one that was only scarred by 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:41.919 false confession. There were the other issues that were beginning 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.040 to arise with the involvement of Tana's family. 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:50.040 Tina's cousin became a key witness for the prosecution against Tina. 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:55.359 She claimed that she had seen Tina with Rewa on 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:59.600 multiple occasions, including once at Tina's girlfriend's home. 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.040 Tim was able to discredit Martha's testimony. 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:07.640 There was evidence of paid witnesses, including his cousin and 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:11.600 his auntie. Those family members gave evidence against him, and 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:13.280 we know that at least one of them was paid 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:14.760 five thousand dollars for her trouble. 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:19.000 Tim tracks down Fiona, Tina's girlfriend, and Fiona says that 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:22.240 she has no idea who Malcolm Rawell was and that 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.280 he was never in her home. From his time on 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:28.280 the police force, Tim was well acquainted with the various 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:32.560 gangs operating around South Auckland, so for him, one piece 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.560 of the prosecution's argument was clearly ridiculous. 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.080 Malcolm Rawa was a senior member of the Highway sixty 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:44.080 one motorcycle Club, Mortal Enemies of the Mongrel Mob and 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:48.119 Sotana Porter as somebody who was supposedly involved with the 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:53.480 Mungrel Mob. Going to Susan Burdette's house late one night 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.960 with a senior member of the Highway sixty one's to 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:00.440 commit a brutal rape and murder. Anybody that knows anything 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:02.760 about gang culture in New Zealand will tell you that 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:03.760 that's just nonsense. 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:09.400 Tim doesn't stop there. He also starts assembling an all 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:13.520 star team of experts, starting with an Icelandic professor and 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:17.960 former detective himself, Geisley good Johnson, who was a professor 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:22.040 by that time in London. Now. Geasley essentially created the 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:25.439 field of false confession science. He's the father of everything 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.800 we're talking about during this podcast, and after Tim sends 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:32.840 him Tanea's interrogation videos, Geezley agrees to write a report 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.640 deconstructing Tana's statements and deeming them unreliable. 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:41.119 Next, Tim enlists the help of respected local New Zealand 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:45.240 journalist named Phil Taylor. Phil had questioned the States case 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.320 against Tana for years and is happy to help, and 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:52.520 Phil delivers. In twenty twelve, as the case for Tana's 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:58.920 innocence is building, Phil releases a bombshell article titled Innocent 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:03.560