Burdett was raped and bludgeoned to death in her Papatoetoe home in 1992.
During the homicide investigation swabs were taken from her body but for years the DNA taken did not match any existing record on the police databank.
In 1996 the DNA was then found to match that of Rewa and he was arrested and charged with Burdett's rape and murder on May 13 that year.
He was also charged with sexual and violent offences against several other women.
Rewa also recently failed in a bid to stop a third trial over the murder of Burdett.
Earlier this month, the Chief High Court Judge, Justice Geoffrey Venning, declined an application to the court for a judicial review of the Attorney-General's decision to lift a stay on proceedings.
Last November the Deputy Solicitor-General, Brendan Horsley, on behalf of the Attorney-General, reversed the 1998 stay on the Burdett murder case, which appeared to clear the way for the third trial Rewa.
The stay was lifted after the Privy Council exonerated Teina Pora for the crime he was twice wrongfully convicted of and spent 22 years in prison for. Pora has since received an apology from the Government and $3.5 million in compensation.
Rewa first stood trial on all the rape charges and for Burdett's murder from March to May in 1998. He was convicted of the sexual assaults but the jury failed to reach a verdict on the charges of rape and murder for Burdett.
A second trial was held in December 1998 on the Burdett charges alone and the jury convicted Rewa of rape but failed to reach a verdict on the murder charge.
A stay had never before been lifted in New Zealand.
Rewa's third trial for Burdett's murder is set to be heard in the High Court at Auckland next February.
