Teina Pora will receive more than $2.5 million in compensation after spending 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, the Government has announced.

Justice Minister Amy Adams has written to Pora to "unreservedly apologise" for the wrongful conviction and the "devastating impact" it has had on his life.

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

LAWRENCE SMITH/FAIRFAX NZ Teina Pora's legal team have said they will not be pushed into accepting the Government's compensation offer immediately.

New evidence presented to the Privy Council showed Pora suffered from foetal alcohol syndrome that made his confession, which was key to his original conviction, unsafe. No retrial was ordered and he spent 21 years in jail.

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* Society owes it to Teina Pora to confront a broken justice system and to fix it

* New book on Teina Pora tells of personal crusade to clear an innocent man

* Independent review for Teina Pora's compensation claim

LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF Teina Pora spent 21 years in prison after he was wrongly accused of rape and murder.

Adams said an independent report from retired High Court judge Rodney Hansen QC had found Pora innocent on the balance of probabilities and recommended he receive more than $2.5m in compensation, which Cabinet accepted.

LAWYERS DISAPPOINTED

Pora's lawyers Jonathan Krebs and Ingrid Squire said the offer was well below what they had been hoping for, after requesting a figure closer to $8 million.

Chris McKeen Teina Pora's lawyers Jonathan Krebs and Ingrid Squire speak about the Government's offer of $2.5 million in compensation for Pora after his wrongful conviction.

While admitting that was at "the higher end of the scale", they believed the figure should have been adjusted along with the Consumer Price Index. This would have brought the offer amount to a little more than $4m, one that the legal team would have been more comfortable with.

"Of course it is a substantial amount of money, it's more money than most people in New Zealand will ever have to their name... so one can't be ungracious about the award and the offer of compensation but by the same token one can't lose sight of the fact this man suffered 22 years incarceration in one form or another for crimes he did not commit."

There was little that could be done regarding the amount, however, as there was no appeal avenue.

When he walked into a police station Teina Pora was 17 but had a mental age of 9.

It would be up to Pora whether he accepted the offer or not.

Squire said when Pora found out about the offer on Tuesday night he was deeply moved.

The formal apology from the Government was the most important aspect and was hugely important to hear.

FAIRFAX NZ Teina Pora at the time of his arrest in 1993 when he was accused of murdering Susan Burdett.

Having spent most of his life in prison he did not have good financial skills, so the significance of the amount was lost on him.

The money, if accepted, would be placed in a whanau trust to benefit himself, his daughter and his grandson.

This meant Pora would not have direct control over the finances.

But Pora did have some financial goals, including helping others and travelling to the United States to meet a pastor he credited for helping turn his life around.

﻿"He does have some large goals about purchasing an outrageously expensive motor vehicle," Squire said.

FORMAL APOLOGY AND OFFER

In a formal letter of apology to Pora, Justice Minister Amy Adams said: "I apologise unreservedly for the devastating impact the wrongful conviction and imprisonment has had on your life.

"While it can never completely remedy the injustice you have suffered, I hope that the Crown's offer of compensation can go some way in helping you and your family build a better future together."

Adams said the public would have a range of views on whether $2.5m was adequate compensation for Pora, but the Government had to follow Cabinet guidelines established in 2001.

"It is appropriate that there is a framework in place, and what I don't believe in would be shifting the goalposts during a process."

It was possible that the guidelines could be reviewed, but that could not be done as an "ad-hoc change" when considering Pora's compensation.

Asked whether serial rapist Malcolm Rewa - considered by Hansen to be the main suspect in Burdett's murder - should be prosecuted following the quashing of Pora's conviction, Adams said that was a decision for Crown prosecutors.

While the report found shortcomings in how police handled Pora's case, Adams said it was not fair to lay the blame at their feet, given the lack of knowledge at the time about Pora's foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and the fact his condition was not produced as evidence at trial by the defence.

"It's very tempting sometimes to sit here in 2016 and look back with the knowledge we have today and second-guess the decisions that were made in the mid-90s - the reality is with the information they had at the time, I can only take the view that people acted with the best of intentions."

Adams did not believe there was a need for an independent commission to investigate cases of wrongful conviction, saying Pora's case showed the current system worked well and "at arm's length" from the Government.

"The Cabinet doesn't seek to act as a judge in these matters, we don't seek to sit there and go through the evidence, we're not finders of fact, we shouldn't sit in that way."

Pora's compensation is the seventh successful application out of 27 since Cabinet guidelines on compensation were introduced.

INDEPENDENT REPORT

In his report, Hansen says Pora's confession at the time "simply cannot withstand critical scrutiny", and was "so plainly a fabrication that it collapses under its own weight".

"All the indications are that he made it up as he went along.

"Lured by the prospect of a reward, lulled by the belief that the consequences for him would not be drastic and with his judgment and his thinking befuddled by FASD, Mr Pora set out to persuade the police that he was there.

"Against the odds he succeeded by using knowledge he already had, information unwittingly fed to him by his interrogators and with the help of family members who had already formed the view that he was guilty and were willing accomplices."

Hansen said Pora had established his innocence on the balance of probabilities, and could have done so to an even higher standard given the evidence in his favour.

Instead, undisputed evidence led to an "irrestible inference" that Rewa, already linked to the crime, had acted alone in raping and murdering Burdett, Hansen's report says.

'UNRESOLVED ISSUES'

Labour justice spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said there were unresolved issues with Pora's case.

"Now that compensation has been awarded, I do still think we need to go back and say, look, what could we do to make sure this doesn't happen again?"

Ardern said an independent criminal case review commission could have sped up the appeal process for Pora, while ensuring it was not "highly politicised" as at present.

"You cannot tell me a more than 20-year process for this individual to have his convictions quashed proves that the system works - it proves that there are failings in our system and we need a safety valve."

Ardern said prosecutors needed to look at charging Rewa, so someone was held to account for Burdett's murder.

"I don't think its enough to say he's serving time already and that's sufficient - that sentence is not a proxy, someone needs to serve time for a murder."

POLICE 'APOLOGISE FOR DEFICIENCIES'

New Zealand Police Acting Commissioner Glenn Dunbier issued a statement on Wednesday, apologising to Pora for deficiencies in the original police investigation.

The statement says Hansen's independent report and the 2015 Privy Council judgment highlighted how foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) was not identified as a possible factor in Pora's confessions by police or Pora's defence team.

Police accept that Pora's version of events in his confessions could not stand up to critical scrutiny, the statement says.

Despite this, police acted with "nothing but good faith" during their investigation and Pora's prosecution.

Dunbier said the case contained lessons for the police. Significant improvements had been made since Pora's convictions, including changes in interview techniques and a greater awareness and understanding of confessions and conditions like FASD.