Speech

I want to talk about Teina Pora, a man who spent over 20 years in jail for a crime he didn’t do. I want to explain how this happened. My dad was involved in this case and went on for weeks, months and years even when I was little. So let’s get started. In 1993 Teina Pora confessed that he was there when the victim Susan Burdett was murdered. This wasn’t true but the reason Teina said it was because of the reward money. Teina was very poor. He grew up poor after his mother died when he was four years old. In 1993 he needed some money for his family so they can survive. He was 17 and he had a 2 year old daughter. The reward money Police were offering was 20,000 dollars. After he confessed, he was arrested and went on trial in 1994.In the end there were two trials and two appeals. After his first trial he spent 5 years in prison. He appealed after Police charged another person with Susan Burdett’s murder. His appeal was successful and he was given a new trial. At his new trial in 2000 he was found guilty again and sent to prison for life. When I was about two years old, my Dad and two lawyers, called Jonathan and Ingrid, began to work on his case again. They discovered Teina had FASD. When I was about two years old, my Dad and two lawyers, called Jonathan and Ingrid, case again. They discovered Teina had FASD.  FASD is a brain injury that happened because his mother drank alcohol when she was pregnant with him. Because he has FASD, Teina doesn’t understand consequences. The consequences of saying he was there was that he was charged with murder. He also gets confused easily because of FASD and got confused during the Police interviews. Back when Teina first confessed people didn’t know about FASD. The appeal was successful and Teina got out of jail. The government investigated his case and found out he was completely innocent.The government said sorry to Teina and paid him 3.5 million dollars in compensation.(com,pen,say,sion) I know Teina, when he was released I meet him. He is very strong, smart and kind. I hang out with him sometimes. There has been a book and a movie about Teina’s case, both called In Dark Places and both made by the same person, Michael Bennett. I am in both the book and the movie. Michael had me act my older brother Luke for the movie. Xavier my younger brother acted me. Acting made me earn over 100 dollars. Luke was a assistant director, he help call the scenes. I hope you learnt something about Teina Pora. I hope you enjoy the restof your day, Thank you.