Two convicted murderers will remain behind bars after the Parole Board rejected requests for release.
The board today released its decisions after hearings for Teina Pora and Stephen Ralph Stone.
Pora, 35, was imprisoned for life beating a woman to death with a softball bat in 1992.
He is appealing his 2000 conviction for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett, 39, in her home in south Auckland on March 23, 1992.
Pora, a Mongrel Mob prospect, was first convicted in 1994 for Ms Burdett's death in a home invasion involving a number of offenders.
But the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction five years later after Auckland serial rapist Malcolm Rewa was found guilty of raping Ms Burdett. A jury could not reach a verdict on whether he was involved in her death.
Pora was found guilty again in a 2000 retrial of Ms Burdett's murder. He was sentenced to a minimum non-parole period of 13 years, later reduced to 10 years.
His hearing was held on February 2.
The board said Pora had made some progress but was caught with a cellphone charge last December.
He had always denied his offending but the board said it had to treat him as a convicted offender and one who had incurred a misconduct (the cellphone charger). Pora was appealing against the misconduct finding saying the charger was not his.
Parole was declined but the board said it would support his temporary release for work or other steps toward reintegration if his appeal was successful.
Stone was jailed for life in 1999. He shot dead Deane Fuller-Sandys over allegations of a drug theft in West Auckland and murdered prostitute Leah Stephen to silence her after she witnessed the shooting.
He was also sentenced to a 10-year concurrent sentence for raping Ms Stephens before stabbing her in the stomach and slitting her throat.
His hearing was on February 8.
The board said that Stone was not seeking release and a psychological report assessed him as a high risk for reoffending.
Stone deailed his frustrations about treatment in prison but the board said consideration of that was not its job.
Reports to the board alleged stand-over tactics and violence which Stone denied.
Stone had completed some programmes but his ambivalence about his offending was a problem.
"Whilst he made a clear acknowledgement to us in 2009 that he accepted responsibility for the first murder and accepted responsibility as being part of the second murder and the rape he today says that that is not so.
"He says he is innocent of those matters and he has evidence to prove it. He says there are still ongoing investigations about that involving a private detective and his co-offender is also pursuing those matters."
The board said Stone had to do a lot more before he could be released and declined parole.
