Frontline TV - Off-Centre online article - The Norfolk 4: A Miscarriage of Justice 2005 -
July 1997 the Naval station in Norfolk, Virginia: a sailor, William Bosko, had just returned from sea … There was no forced entry. The apartment was clean and tidy except for the bedroom where Michelle Moore Bosko had been brutally raped and murdered. To the police it looked like a single assailant. Frontline: The Confessions, PBS 2010
‘… a small room … getting in your face, yelling at you, calling you a liar, poking you in the chest …’ ibid. Danial
Danial Williams confessed after eleven hours of interrogation … ‘completely inconsistent with the facts of the crime.’ ibid. defense dude
The results of Danial’s DNA were back and they did not match the semen left at the crime scene … They kept the DNA results secret and went looking for his accomplice. ibid.
His name was Omar Abdul Ballard; the letter ended with a stunning admission. Ibid
Ballard confessed almost immediately … The state was undeterred. ibid.
Four innocent men, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick, Derek Tice, and Eric Wilson, all veterans of the US Navy, were convicted of crimes they did not commit. An objective, comprehensive review of this case by the nation’s leading experts in the fields of forensic pathology, forensic DNA analysis, crime scene reconstruction, and false confessions leaves no doubt that Danial, Joe, Derek, and Eric were wrongly accused, falsely confessed, and are all innocent. They were convicted based on false confessions extracted by a detective who has a documented history of eliciting false confessions and has recently been indicted by a federal grand jury on extortion charges …
On August 6, 2009, three of the Norfolk Four received conditional pardons from Governor Tim Kaine. Derek Tice, Danial Williams, and Joseph Dick, jr have been released from prison and rejoined their families after more than 11 harsh years in prison …
On September 14, 2009, Judge Richard L Williams of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Derek Tice’s federal habeas petition and overturned Mr Tice’s conviction. In the opinion, Judge Williams finds that the state trial court’s grant of Mr Tice’s habeas petition based on the violation of his constitutional rights was correct, and that the Virginia Supreme Court’s reversal of that decision was an ‘objectively unreasonable’ application of federal law …
On Tuesday, March 21, 2017, Joseph Dick, Derek Tice, Danial Williams, and Eric Wilson, four innocent Navy veterans known as the ‘Norfolk Four,’ received long-awaited full pardons based on their actual innocence from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. The Norfolk Four were wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in 1997; their case involved troubling issues of police misconduct, false confessions, and unconstitutionally suppressed evidence. Off-Centre online article 2005
In the 1990s Danial Williams, Joseph Dick junior, Derek Tice and Eric Wilson joined the Navy with aspirations of serving their country. Today three of the four remain in prison serving life sentences for falsely confessing to a rape and murder that none of them committed. Despite the fact that DNA has identified the real killer. The Norfolk 4: A Miscarriage of Justice, Youtube 32.39, 2005
On July 8th 1997 Billy returned from a Navy cruise to find his 18-year-old wife Michelle brutally murdered on the bedroom floor of the apartment they shared. ibid.
To the surprise of the Norfolk detectives, Danial Williams’ DNA was not a match. In fact no fingerprints, shoe prints or physical evidence of any kind connected Danial to the crime. ibid.
The police never attempted to confirm Joe’s alibi [on duty]. ibid.
Seven Navy men were arrested as a result of Detective Ford’s investigation. No physical evidence linked any of them to the crime. ibid.
All four men retracted their confessions and all contend that Detective Ford coerced them into making these false confessions. ibid.
‘In the US 164 people have been exonerated by DNA evidence. 20% of those exonerated falsely confessed to the crime’. ibid. Innocence Project 2005
All four men were interrogated for hours and deprived of sleep. ibid.
Detective Ford lied to the men about the evidence against them and gave them details about the crime. ibid.
‘Six different people causing such regularity in wounding is very highly unlikely.’ ibid. Dr Spitz, forensic pathologist
The statements of all four men were inconsistent with the evidence. ibid.