Tim McKinnel manages investigative work for Greenpeace's global tuna campaign. The investigations focus on illegal fishing and human rights abuses in the fishing industry around the world.
From 2009 to 2015 Tim led the investigation into the wrongful conviction of Teina Pora. Mr Pora had spent 21 years in prison for the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett. In March 2015 the Privy Council quashed Mr Pora's convictions. Tim speaks about his experiences below.
Fighting for Social Justice, from South Auckland to the High Seas
In March 2015 the Privy Council in London quashed Teina Pora’s New Zealand convictions for the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett. Teina had spent almost 22 years in prison for a crime that, it seemed clear to me, he had nothing to do with. The most incriminating evidence against him was his own words; a confession, at 17 years of age, that he was involved in the murder. A key part of our appeal to the Privy Council was that those statements were unreliable and his recently diagnosed foetal alcohol spectrum disorder explained why he had made a false confession.
I was a young cop in South Auckland in 2000 when I heard senior cops speculating, after having been convicted for a second time, that Teina may be innocent. It remained with me over the years and in 2009, after having left the Police and establishing myself as a self-employed investigator, I decided to see if I could help. A single phone call, and a visit to the prison, was the beginning of a six year fight to prove Teina was innocent and had been wrongly convicted by the New Zealand criminal justice system.
Our fight brought together a wonderful group of people, including brilliant lawyers, some incredibly smart psychologists, scientists and experts. The case involved gang members, journalists, prison guards, a serial rapist, convicted fraudsters, jail house snitches and more than one fantasist. I learned many lessons over those six years, but perhaps the most important was that institutions and systems will ultimately strive to protect the status quo, and their own reputations.
At the end of Teina’s case, it was this lesson in particular that led me to a job at Greenpeace to investigate environmental and human rights abuses in the global fishing industry.
While many are unable to appreciate what my work at Greenpeace and the fight to clear Teina’s name have in common, I do. Both are a fight for social justice, for fairness. They are fights to push people, and systems, to change for the better.
Following Teina’s case we wrote, and published, a book called “In Dark Places”, telling the story behind our fight to clear an innocent man’s name. Fittingly, many of the lessons outlined in the book are now being applied to my work at Greenpeace.
In Dark Places by Michael Bennett can be bought at all good book stores in New Zealand, or online at paullittlebooks.co.nz