Burdett jury biased, Rewa appeal argues
Suppression order resulted in insurmountable hurdle: Lawyer
Convicted killer Malcolm Rewa claims his jury at last year’s trial for Susan Burdett’s murder was biased and had predetermined its verdict.
The serial rapist’s lawyer also argues a suppression order created an “insurmountable hurdle”, court documents obtained by the Herald show.
The case, which has spanned nearly two decades, will continue this month in the Court of Appeal as Rewa seeks to overturn his conviction for the 1992 Auckland killing — one of New Zealand’s most infamous.
At a hearing in Wellington on February 20, Rewa will argue his jury was biased and had “predetermined” its verdict without considering the evidence, court papers read.
Court of Appeal president Justice Stephen Kos and Justices Mark Cooper and
David Collins are expected to hear the appeal.
Rewa’s lawyer, Paul Chambers, also continues to question how quickly the jury returned its verdict on February 22 last year.
“The jury retired to deliberate 25 minutes before the lunch break. It was confirmed to me from a confidential source that deliberations did not start until 15 minutes after the lunch break,” Chambers said in the documents.
“That means the jury spent exactly one hour and twenty minutes traversing more than 400 pages of the [ notes of evidence] and the hundreds of pages of booklet exhibits. That is not just evidence of an unreasonable jury verdict, that is insulting to my client and to the memory of the victim.”
Chambers said a suppression order had also created “an insurmountable hurdle”.
“The suppression continues the fallacy in the public arena and was a factor in the inability to empanel an unbiased jury.”
During his trial, Rewa claimed he was in a secret sexual relationship with Burdett — which he said explained his semen being found at the crime scene.
Chief High Court judge Justice Geoffrey Venning, who presided over the trial, has called the claim “a further injustice and indignity on Ms Burdett and her memory”.
Rewa also accused Burdett’s son, Dallas McKay, of the murder and said a possible motive might have been the $250,000 he inherited from her life-insurance policy.
The Court of Appeal documents further reveal Rewa will argue his jury relied heavily upon propensity evidence to justify its verdict, without considering the physical evidence.
Before the trial, the Court of Appeal allowed the Crown to use 20 of Rewa’s previous rape convictions to display a pattern of offending.
The attack on Burdett, Crown prosecutor Gareth
Kayes said at trial, displayed all the hallmarks of a typical Rewa crime. Several of his rape victims had their legs crossed or dangling over the bed, their eyes blindfolded, and top half covered.
Burdett was found lying naked on her bed, her upper half covered with a bloodsoaked blue duvet after she was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat, while her legs were crossed and hanging over the side of the bed.
Kayes said Rewa entered Burdett’s South Auckland home through a window and surprised the 39-year-old as she prepared for bed — a style of attack for which he was known.
Justice Venning told Rewa at his sentencing last March that “the evidence against you was overwhelming”. But Justice Venning’s decision to refuse to grant a stay of the proceeding impinged on Rewa’s fair-trial rights, Chambers argues in the Court of Appeal documents. A 1998 stay of the murder charge against Rewa was lifted in 2017, allowing a third trial to proceed.
Rewa had two previous trials in 1998 over the accounts clerk’s murder. Both juries, however, were unable to reach a conclusion for the murder but Rewa was convicted of her rape at his second trial. During pretrial hearings, Chambers also argued historical media publicity and a 2018 telemovie were prejudicial.
The case led to one of New Zealand’s great injustices — Teina Pora’s prosecution and jailing. Pora was just 17 when he was arrested before twice being wrongly convicted of Burdett’s murder. He spent 22 years in jail. His conviction was quashed by the Privy Council in 2015 and he has received a government apology and $3.5 million in compensation.
Rewa was sentenced to life in jail for Burdett’s murder, to be served concurrently with his existing 22-year preventive-detention sentence for his rapes.