Editorial: Not enough for losing 21 years of his life

Teina Pora's compensation package is light.

Having lost 21 years of his life through being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder, he has been offered $2.5 million and an apology.

The offer does not include an inflation component, despite a recommendation to do so from Rodney Hansen, QC, who made the compensation decision.

A challenge is inevitable.

David Dougherty spent more than three years in prison after being convicted of the abduction and rape of an 11-year-old Auckland schoolgirl.

After a High Court acquittal in 1997 he was paid $868,728 in compensation for wrongful imprisonment four years later, in 2001.

In 1980 Arthur Allan Thomas was paid $950,000 - worth about $4.5 million today - for the nine years he spent in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murdering Jeanette and Harvey Crewe.

Mr Thomas' situation is closer to Mr Pora's - and based on Mr Thomas' payout Mr Pora should expect a sum in excess of at least $5 million.

The logic behind that is simple - Mr Thomas' payout was equivalent to $500,000 per year in today's money.

Mr Pora's injustice started 21 years ago.

It is not as simple to say 21 years should mean $500,000 for each year.

But it is not difficult to come to the conclusion that Mr Pora, having been wronged once, has been wronged again with this offer.

And of course none of this takes into account the largest "wrong" among all of this, that no one has ever been convicted of Susan Burdett's murder.