Teina Pora's expected compensation of $2 million is "completely and woefully inadequate", according to one of the country's leading law experts.
Mr Pora spent 20 years behind bars for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett, crimes he didn't commit, before having his convictions quashed by the Privy Council.
Cabinet is expected to reveal on Wednesday afternoon he'll be compensated $2 million, which Massey University dean of law Chris Gallavin is calling "utterly, utterly outlandish".
"This isn't a case that we all thought Teina Pora was guilty and all of a sudden some DNA dropped out of the sky, which occasionally happens," he told Paul Henry on Wednesday morning.
"This has just been wound followed by aggravation, followed by salt. The way the police conducted themselves in their investigation was woefully inadequate, and then it was perpetuated by the Crown and their almost antagonistic relationship with the defence."
Mr Pora was 17 when he was convicted in 1994. Police never found any direct evidence he was involved in the crimes, and his version of events often changed and was full of contradictions.
It's believed he went to the police intending to collect a reward for information leading to the capture of Ms Burdett's rapist and murderer, but ended up being convicted of the crimes.
Twenty years later at the Privy Council, his lawyers said he had the mental age of a 10-year-old due to foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Dr Gallavin says Cabinet follows a flowchart to work out how much wrongly imprisoned people should be compensated, starting at about $100,000 a year.
"They're looking at pecuniary losses, in the sense that he's not been able to earn any income for the last 21 years. It's an indication of [firstly], what have you actually missed out on by the mere fact that you've been unable to look after yourself, build a career or even build a family.
"The second is the non-pecuniary considerations -- the fact you've been in a prison cell, you've not been able to build a family, you've not been able to develop your life, [get] an education, and really enjoy the freedom you and I take for granted."
But Mr Pora has been treated so badly and his long-maintained innocence so ignored, Dr Gallavin says $6 million would be a better place to start -- not $2 million.
"This has just been an absolute mess of a case right from the start… On this, he can barely afford a house in Auckland."
Previous wrongful conviction cases have resulted in much more generous payouts. In 1979 Arthur Allan Thomas received $950,000 after serving nine years for the murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe. In 2016, this would equate to $5,200,000.
Dr Gallavin also points to a 1999 case in Canada, where a man who spent a similar amount of time behind bars as Mr Pora was awarded CA$10 million -- about $15 million in 2016 New Zealand dollars.
"If we look overseas, we're completely and woefully inadequate."
David Bain, who also had his convictions quashed, has spent years unsuccessfully trying to get compensation for the time he spent behind bars.
Newshub.
