After lengthy, inten­sive inter­ro­ga­tions, which in some cas­es includ­ed threats to pur­sue the death penal­ty, four enlist­ed Navy sailors con­fessed to a rape and mur­der in Norfolk, Va. that occurred in 1997. Now, con­vinc­ing new evi­dence has emerged indi­cat­ing that all four may be inno­cent. A recent New York Times Magazine arti­cle describes how three of the men — Danial Williams, Joseph Dick, and Derek Tice — were sen­tenced to life with­out parole for the rape and mur­der of Michelle Moore-Bosko, and the fourth sailor, Eric Williams, spent 8 – 1/​2 years in prison for the rape before his release. The four men, known as the ​“Norfolk Four,” now main­tain their inno­cence and say that police coerced their con­fes­sions dur­ing long inter­ro­ga­tions that includ­ed threats of a death sen­tence and phys­i­cal abuse. Their con­fes­sions con­tained accounts of the mur­der that var­ied sig­nif­i­cant­ly from one anoth­er, and the details they pro­vid­ed did not fit with evi­dence col­lect­ed by police. In addi­tion, no phys­i­cal evi­dence gath­ered from the scene linked the men to the crime. A let­ter turned over to police in 1999 also cast doubt on the ​“Norfolk Four’s” guilt. The let­ter was authored by Omar Ballard, a known crim­i­nal and an acquain­tance of Moore-Bosko. In it he con­fessed to the crime, and police test­ing lat­er con­firmed that the only phys­i­cal evi­dence found on the vic­tim matched Ballard’s DNA.

In exam­in­ing why four sailors would all false­ly con­fess to a crime, the author inter­viewed experts who say the four faced inter­ro­ga­tion con­di­tions that often lead to false con­fes­sions. Studies of proven false con­fes­sions have found a num­ber of recur­ring mark­ers, includ­ing actu­al vio­lence, threats of vio­lence, threats of harsh sen­tences like exe­cu­tion, and extreme duress brought about by iso­la­tion, sleep­less­ness and lengthy, high-pres­sure inter­ro­ga­tions. One of the inter­roga­tors in the case had pre­vi­ous­ly been dis­ci­plined for secur­ing false con­fes­sions. Law pro­fes­sors Steven Drizen and Richard Leo added that once detec­tives have secured a con­fes­sion, they often fail to con­sid­er oth­er the­o­ries or sus­pects. In addi­tion, pros­e­cu­tors ​“rarely con­sid­er the pos­si­bil­i­ty that an entire­ly inno­cent sus­pect has been made to con­fess false­ly through the use of psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly coer­cive and/​or improp­er inter­ro­ga­tion meth­ods.”

In recent years, four for­mer Virginia attor­neys gen­er­al have joined a grow­ing list of sup­port­ers call­ing on Virginia Govenor Tim Kaine to par­don the four men on the basis that the state per­pe­trat­ed a major mis­car­riage of jus­tice in the case. Among those voic­ing con­cern is Richard Cullen, who was appoint­ed as a U.S. attor­ney under for­mer President George H.W. Bush and who served as attor­ney gen­er­al for for­mer Virginia Governor George Allen. Cullen said the ​“total­i­ty of the sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence” and ​“the crime scene being incon­sis­tent with the pros­e­cu­tion the­o­ry” con­vinced him that the four sailors are inno­cent. Senior Naval Chief Michael Ziegler, who was in charge of Joe Dick’s ship while he was sta­tioned in Norfolk, also believes the men are inno­cent and said that he wish­es he had done more to ensure the truth came out about the sailors. Ziegler, who has ​“no doubt” that Dick was aboard the U.S.S. Saipan at the time of the crime, observed, ​“I wish I’d gone and forced some­one to lis­ten to me — Joe’s lawyer, the police, the D.A. — to say some­thing’s wrong here.… My biggest mis­take was I trust­ed that the jus­tice sys­tem was going to do the right thing. I could­n’t con­ceive that some­one who was obvi­ous­ly inno­cent was going to go to jail. That’s where I was wrong.”

Omar Ballard is serv­ing a 40-year prison sen­tence for the rape and beat­ing of a teenage girl just ten days after Moore-Bosko’s mur­der. The crime hap­pened one mile from the ear­li­er inci­dent. When police inter­ro­gat­ed him about Moore-Bosko’s mur­der, he told them that he act­ed alone, a con­fes­sion sup­port­ed by all the evi­dence in the case. Danial Williams, Joseph Dick, and Derek Tice remain in prison, though Tice’s con­vic­tion was over­turned in 2006.
(Alan Berlow, ​“What Happened in Norfolk?” New York Times Magazine, August 19, 2007). Watch a video about the ​“Norfolk Four.” Read more infor­ma­tion about the case. See also, Innocence.

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