WEBVTT - #160 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Norfolk 4 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions. I'm Laura and I 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:09.639 writer and I'm Steve Derson. Steve and I are lawyers. 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:12.800 We fight to free people who've been wrongfully convicted, and 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:16.479 our specialty is false confessions. In the season one of 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.800 this podcast, we shared twelve true stories of people who 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.400 confess to crimes they didn't commit. This season, we're back 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.560 with more stories that show how injustice that starts in 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:31.040 the interrogation room can spread across the entire criminal justice system. 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.319 These are twelve more cases that keep us up at night. 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.680 Today's case feels like a recurring nightmare. We'll tell you 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:43.239 about not one, but four US Navy sailors who falsely 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.040 confess to murdering another sailor's wife. They volunteered to fight 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.559 for their country, but they ended up fighting for their 0:00:49.600 --> 0:01:02.400 own freedom. 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:07.120 The Norfolk Fort is an iconic case because it is 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.399 one of the most colossal screw ups in the history 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.200 of American justice. I never thought this case would go 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:17.399 to trial, but it did and they were convicted, and 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:18.360 I was stunned. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.840 When you think about these guys from all across the 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.399 United States who signed up to serve their country in 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.960 the military, and this is what they were handed. It's outrageous. 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:31.720 I mean, Steve, you've had family members in the military. 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:38.080 Yeah, my father served and he enlisted less than six 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:42.080 months after his own brother was killed at Iwo Jima. 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.520 I grew up. Every Memorial Day we would gather by 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:51.680 my uncle's graveside, and these men in uniform would fire 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.000 rifles into the air, and I can still hear how 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:57.720 loud they were to like a seven year old kid. 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:02.800 The military was something that was respected in my household. 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.200 You know, the military is built on honor. 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.560 The truth is every one of the Norfolk four was 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.720 there to serve his country, and instead their reputations and 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:13.880 their lives were dragged through the mud. 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.440 It's like a war zone at the end of this case, 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.600 with bodies strewn all over the place. 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:22.079 But nobody won. 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:26.560 That's right. Everybody was a casualty. It took twenty years 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.680 to right this wrong completely, and it never should have 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:32.959 happened in the first place. 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.200 Today's story starts at the US Naval station in Norfolk, Virginia. 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.680 It's the world's largest naval base, the headquarters of the 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.000 Fleet Forces Command, and it all sits on a narrow 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:51.200 peninsula separating the Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. That's 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.399 where the USS Simpson docs at Peer five on July eighth, 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:58.000 nineteen ninety seven, after six days at sea. Among the 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.200 hundreds of sailors on board is built Tillie Bosco, a 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:05.120 nineteen year old signalman. As his ship maneuvers into place, 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.800 Billy is scanning the pier. He's hoping to find his 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:13.600 eighteen year old bride, Michelle, waiting for him. Billy and 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.560 Michelle were high school sweethearts from Pittsburgh who'd been married 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.560 for just three months. They'd met a few years earlier 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.520 on the school bus when Billy's eye was caught by 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.520 Michelle's red hair. He tried to impress her by saying, hey, Toots, 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.359 nice jacket, but it was her quick response, my name's 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:36.600 Michelle that impressed him. Pretty soon they became inseparable. After graduating, 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.880 Billy enlisted in the navy. Michelle followed him to Norfolk, 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:43.720 where they got married. But when Billy's ship docks that day, 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.200 there's no Michelle waiting for him. He goes straight home 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.600 to their tiny apartment off base. Michelle usually kept the 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:55.080 place spotlessly clean, but today is horribly different. On the 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.560 bedroom floor, Billy finds his wife dead, wearing nothing but 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.440 a black T shirt and found it by blood. She's 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:05.800 been raped, stabbed, and strangled. Billy searches for the phone, 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.760 but in his panic, he can't find it. Instead, he 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.760 runs next door to the apartment of another naval couple, 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:16.080 Daniel and Nicole Williams. Billy tells them his wife is dead, 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.000 and Daniel calls nine one one. The two men go 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.200 back to the scene, where they put a blanket over 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:25.400 Michelle's legs. Police arrive just minutes later. There are no 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.760 signs of forest entry, so police theorized that Michelle knew 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.760 her attacker and had let him in. They ask Michelle's 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.440 friends who might have done this. No one has any ideas. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.680 The police keep pressing, though, and one friend finally mentions 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:44.040 the neighbor, Daniel Williams. Daniel was a twenty five year 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.000 old sailor from Michigan who'd also just gotten married. But 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.799 Daniel and his wife, Nicole, had recently gotten some terrible news. 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.719 They had thought Nichole was expecting, but she wasn't pregnant 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:59.880 after all. Instead, she was dying of ovarian cancer. Daniel, 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.080 grief stricken but the police had ideas of their own 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.159 about how he was handling it. They developed a theory 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:12.760 that Daniel had become interested in Michelle. It's only been 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.040 an hour and a half since Michelle's body was found, 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.000 but police are somehow already convinced they've got their man. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.760 With no other leads, police ask Daniel Williams to come 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.320 down to the station. They tell him it's normal to 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.479 question anyone who'd been involved in discovering a body, and 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:32.120 Daniel finds himself alone in an interrogation room, totally unprepared 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:33.200 for what's about to happen. 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.680 This is the worst type of crime you can imagine, 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.159 not only a murder, but a murder rape of a 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.360 young woman. And these are the kinds of cases that 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:45.240 really get the adrenaline of police departments up. 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.040 That's our friend Richard Leo, one of the globes leading 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.159 experts on false confessions. He's also co authored a book 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:52.120 about the Norfolk four. 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.840 It's entrenched in the police culture that when you interrogate, 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.600 it's because your goal is to get a confession. We 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.159 all think an innocent person wouldn't falsely confess, So it's 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.240 a puzzle why would people do something that none of 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:08.520 us think we would do. 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.839 Some of you may remember our explanation of how false 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.279 confessions happen from last season. If you're new to this podcast, 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:17.359 you can check out our first episode, or Steve and 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.520 I take a deep dive into the interrogation room. Here's 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.760 how it goes. For Daniel Williams, police accuse him of 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.000 raping and killing Michelle Bosco, and Daniel says he had 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.360 nothing to do with it. They ask him to take 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.640 a polygraph and he agrees. He wants to prove his innocence. 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.040 But police lie to Daniel. They tell him he failed 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.320 the polygraph, when he really passed it. They say the 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.360 polygraph proves he's guilty. 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:46.040 Polygraphs, in any event, are highly unreliable. They're not scientific 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.600 what police pretend they are. You give a suspect polygraph, 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.720 you tell them the results indicate that they're lying, and 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:57.640 that the machine is scientific and error free. So it's 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:03.240 an effective interrogation technique in breaking down somebody's resistance and 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:07.680 denials because science has just proven beyond any doubt that 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:09.000 they are guilty. 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.040 Daniel's scared as hell. It's dawning on him that the 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.560 police will never believe he's innocent. They insist that Daniel 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.120 needs to admit he attacked Michelle. The interrogation goes on 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.760 overnight for eight hours, but Daniel won't say he did it. 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:23.520 Now. 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:25.640 None of the interrogation was taped, so we don't have 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.520 a perfect record of what happened, but we do know 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.280 that by early morning Daniel still hadn't confessed. So police 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.680 bring in a closer, an interrogator who knows how to 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.400 get confessions, and according to Daniel, that's when things get 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:40.080 really rough. 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:45.040 So the detective who was the primary instigator in this 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:50.040 case was a man named Detective Ford, and Daniel Williams 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:55.400 was not equipped to deal with his high stress interrogation tactics. 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.840 According to Daniel, the detective suggests that he'd been attracted 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.440 to Michelle, he couldn't have sex with his dying wife 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.720 as much as he wanted to. Ford says, maybe Daniel 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.240 wanted an affair with Michelle and he went to her 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:09.200 apartment to get it. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:14.640 Daniel went from the joy of finding someone to spend 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.440 the rest of his life with to knowing that his 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:21.360 wife was going to die a painful and miserable death 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:25.560 in all likelihood, In the middle of that, he's accused 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:32.360 of sexually assaulting and murdering his neighbor. Unbelievable. 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.120 The interrogation only gets worse from there. Daniels told the 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.599 evidence against him is rock solid. The death penalty is 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.280 on the table, Ford tells him unless he cooperates with 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:44.120 police and. 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:49.440 Confesses, Daniel is essentially assaulted with threats of the death penalty, 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:54.800 lies about the evidence against him, screaming, shouting, breaking him down, 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.760 accusing him of being a liar, and after a long 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:03.760 period of time, and you'll agrees to a preconceived story 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.800 that was fed to him by Detective Ford. 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.679 That's when police finally turned on the tape recorder. 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.760 I got her in the back room and I forced 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:27.440 her to the floor and I forced her to have 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:34.680 intercourse with me. She resisted, and I hit her a 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:43.880 couple of times with my hand. I grabbed a flat, 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:51.280 hard shoe and I struck her with it once and 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:54.480 I got up and I left. 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.120 Soon enough, though, police realized they've got a problem while 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.800 they recording dan Neill's confession. The autopsy report comes back 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.560 and they learned Michelle hadn't been beaten with a shoe. 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.440 She'd actually been stabbed, So now police have to feed 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:10.560 Daniel a news story. 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.400 So you stabbed the proximate three times? Is that greg 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:14.360 that is cured. 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.000 People look at these confessions and say, well, geez, you know, 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.200 they described the crime scene, they described the weapon. People 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.280 don't know that when an innocent person is broken down 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.560 and falsely confesses, the police fed them the crime facts 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.360 and the person, after many hours, repeated that back. 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.840 By seven o'clock the next morning, Daniel Williams has become 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.240 a confessed killer. He's arrested and calls his mom right 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.640 away from jail to recant his confession, but it's too late. 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.920 Daniel is charged with capital murder, meaning the death penalty 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.959 is on the table, and the Norfolk Police close the case. 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.920 The case stayed closed for all of four months. That's 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:59.720 when results came back from a DNA test on the 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.000 scene found on Michelle's body. It was a single mail 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.559 profile that didn't belong to Daniel Williams. 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:10.559 Game over. This is the kind of evidence that exonerates defendants. 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:11.199 All of the. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.319 Time, Dan should have been on his way home. 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:15.560 He and his wife should have been able to spend 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.280 her remaining days together. 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.400 His confession was false. The DNA proved it, but the 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.880 police refused to let go of their belief in Daniel's guilt. Instead, 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:29.280 they developed a new theory. Another man must have been 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:38.880 there too, and before long they picked out a second suspect. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.240 This episode is sponsored by AIG, a leading global insurance company, 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.199 and Paul Weiss Rifkin, Wharton and Garrison, a leading international 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.839 law firm. The AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:58.720 services and other support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.760 most in need, and recently they announced that working to 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:04.560 reform the criminal justice system will become a key pillar 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.079 of the program's mission. Paul Weiss has long had an 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:12.360 unwavering commitment to providing impactful pro bono legal assistance to 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.439 the most vulnerable members of our society and in support 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.120 of the public interest, including extensive work in the criminal 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.160 justice area. 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.920 Joe Dick was twenty one, a Navy sailor who rented 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.920 a room from Daniel and Nicole Williams. Joe had grown 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.480 up in Baltimore with major intellectual disabilities that made him 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.600 think more like a child. Joe was eager to please 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:43.160 and very easy to intimidate. As a high schooler, he 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.240 worked at his church mowing the lawn until one day 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.800 when the mower clogged, Joe reached inside and the blade 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.120 cut off a couple of his fingers. After that, whenever 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.040 his high school shop teachers told him to use machinery 0:12:56.040 --> 0:13:03.040 that he didn't understand, Joe would hide until class was over. Unfortunately, 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:07.800 Joe couldn't hide from Detective Ford. Six months after Michelle's death, 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:13.360 naval security turns Joe over for interrogation. Detective Ford accuses 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:17.680 Joe of helping Daniel kill Michelle Bosco. Now Joe is 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:21.120 really confused because he remembers being on his ship the 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:25.840 night Michelle was killed. But again, Ford administers a polygraph 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.520 and says Joe failed. Ford shows Joe a picture of 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.559 Michelle lying dead on the floor and says he'll get 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.520 the death penalty unless he admits helping Daniel kill her. 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.760 It's pretty clear there's only one story Ford will accept. 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.560 Innocent suspects come to see their situation as hopeless, that 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.599 there's no way out other than to give the interrogator 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:50.360 what they want, and the interrogator is offering them a 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.959 way out by suggesting they can go home, or they'll 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.079 mitigate their damage, or they can just put an end 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.160 to it the interrogation. Most people don't know police are 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.960 trained in these manipulative techniques. And of course, if the 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.360 police have the right person, that's a good thing as 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.679 long as they follow the law. But sometimes they get 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:09.440 the wrong person. 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.400 Soon enough, Detective Forward turns on the recorder and Joe 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:17.040 Dick confesses to helping Daniel rape and murder Michelle Bosco. 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.320 At least he does the best he can. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.280 Why did you two take it upon yourselves to rape 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:25.000 and murder this one. 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:38.040 Don't know? Didn't you describe the knife? All I can 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.560 say about the knife is it looked like a normal 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:45.480 kitchen knife that you would use for made or song 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:46.640 to Charlotte. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:53.320 Yes, Joe Dick is slow and low functioning and highly suggestible, 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.800 and these are personality traits that make somebody more vulnerable 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.960 to making false confessions. And so it took less time 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.160 to break Joe Dick than it took to break the others. 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.520 Joe Dick was even less equipped to deal with the 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:14.760 interrogation tactics of Detective Ford. He was a follower in 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.480 the truest sense of the word, and Detective Ford took 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:19.240 advantage of that. 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.360 Based on his confession, Joe is charged with capital murder 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.880 as Daniel's co defendant. The police were sure that this 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.560 time they'd closed the case. Then within weeks Joe's DNA 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.800 is compared to this seaman from the crime scene. Turns 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.400 out the DNA doesn't belong to him either. Neither Joe 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.560 Dick nor Daniel Williams could have been the attacker, but 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.960 instead of looking outside their circle of suspects, police decide 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.520 to expand it. They insist that Daniel and Joe must 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.520 still be guilty, but now they decide a third man 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:52.720 must have been involved too. 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:59.400 You know, when faced with compelling evidence of innocence, compelling 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:03.320 evidence that your theory is wrong, you should be examining 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:08.320 the theory, not trying to reinterpret facts to create a 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:13.400 new theory which accommodates the DNA evidence. We see this 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.760 over and over again. When prosecutions start changing their theories 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.200 in midstream, you have to be very concerned that an 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:23.880 injustice is about to happen. 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.440 By this point, two injustices had already happened, and more 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.400 were still to come. Joe's lawyer told him that his 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.720 best hope of escaping the electric chair would be if 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.920 he identified one more perpetrator. Pretty soon, Joe came up 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.840 with a third name, Eric Wilson, and on April eighth, 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.960 nineteen ninety eight, Eric became the next domino waiting to fall. 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.240 Eric Wilson was a twenty one year old naval recruit 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.000 from Texas. He was an eagle scout, the kind of 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.320 guy who'd walk girls home from parties when their dates 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:02.680 got too drunk. On a detective Ford starts interrogating Eric 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.760 Wilson once again. Ford administers a polygraph and tells Eric 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.919 he flunked it, just like with Joe. Ford slaps a 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.120 picture of Michelle's dead body on the table and says 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.240 he can prove Eric helped Daniel and Joe commit the crime. 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.960 It was all bullshit. Eric barely even knew Daniel or Joe. 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.119 But after hours in the interrogation room, Eric starts to 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.320 doubt his own memory. Maybe he really was lying and 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:27.199 didn't realize it. 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.280 People come to doubt themselves and their memories or beliefs 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:37.280 in interrogations. It's a high pressure game of deception, manipulation, 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.240 persuasion to get people who deny committing a crime to 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:42.439 confess to committing it. 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:47.040 Eventually, Eric agrees to the cop story. Detective Ford turns 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.280 on the recorder and Eric repeats what he's been told 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.280 that he, Joe and Daniel raped Michelle, but he says 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.520 he left before the stabbing started. 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.200 I grabbed Michelle by given the shoulders are the upper arm. 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:06.280 I can't remember exactly. I didn't know what to do. 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:13.840 I was real confused. Well, Dan ended up Rapinger and 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:21.080 Levi went in next, and I started. 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.760 And soon enough Eric Wilson is charged as capital defendant 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:27.120 number three. 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.720 He said that the interrogation was so coercive that he 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.600 would have said anything. If they had told him that 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.040 he needed to confess to the killing of John F. Kennedy, 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.600 he would have said he handed Oswald the gun. He 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:40.520 would have said anything just to get out of there. 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.040 At the end of many, many hours that broke him down. 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.240 But again, weeks past, the DNA is tested and yet 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.440 again it's not a match. By mid June, police are 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:52.760 looking for a fourth man. 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.720 Zero for three. This is bad enough for Joe Dick 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:01.320 and Dan Williams and Eric Wilson. Imagine what it's like 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:05.600 for Billy Bosco. The worst possible nightmare you can imagine, 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.200 But it only gets worse because please keep telling him, 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.320 it's not just one person that raped and killed your wife, 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:17.479 it's two and then three. She's being violated over and 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:22.280 over again. He has to relive the trauma every time. 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:27.000 The police bring in somebody else to this story, and 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:28.040 it's all a lie. 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.400 To find their fourth man, police go back to Joe Dick. 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:36.359 After a lot more questioning, Joe offers another name, George Clark. 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.120 Now police have no idea who George Clark might be, 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.040 or if this person even exists, so they bring Joe 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.040 an old Navy yearbook. Joe flips through it and points 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:51.920 to a picture of a former sailor named Derek Tice. Yeah, 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:57.440 Joe says, that looks like him. Derek Tye was born 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.520 in North Carolina, a Southerner who called his elder sir 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.679 and ma'am. Derek was really smart, but he had a 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.960 learning disability and never did well in school. He scraped 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.840 through graduation and enlisted in the Navy to get trained 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:13.600 as a paramedic. But now it's Derek Tice's turn to 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:17.040 be questioned by Detective Ford. When Derek says he knows 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:21.439 nothing about Michelle Bosco's murder, Ford falsely tells Derek that 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.200 physical evidence had already proven him guilty. 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.200 Police routinely pretend to have evidence they don't have, state 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.879 that there is evidence that doesn't exist. That's an acceptable 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.480 technique in American policing. In the American legal system, unlike 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:37.160 in other legal systems. 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:39.760 Ford follows the same playbook that he used on the 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.199 other three. He administers a polygraph and tells Derek he 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.720 failed it again. Ford threatens Derek with the death penalty 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:51.159 unless he confesses. After nearly twelve hours of this, Derek 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.720 agrees to confess. Just like the others on tape, He 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.880 repeats the story that Ford tells him that he committed 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.920 the rape and murder along with Daniel, Joe, and Eric. 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.439 This story is enough for Derek to become the fourth 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:06.760 man charged with the attack on Michelle Bosco. 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.520 Why did you all agree to go with him? I 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:15.600 agree because of peer blessure. I can't say one of 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:19.080 the others did. I believe it is for the same reason. 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:22.320 You can probably guess what I'm about to tell you Next. 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:25.639 The DNA is tested yet again and it doesn't belong 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:26.440 to Derek either. 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:31.320 This is false Confession number four. Laura I know you 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:32.840 don't know much about baseball. 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:34.520 Yeah, but I do know that no one gets a 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:35.240 fourth strike. 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:38.919 You don't get a fourth strike in baseball, and you 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.399 don't get a fourth strike in law enforcement. It's time 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.760 to call this game. It's time to end this charade. 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:51.000 All four sailors have been proven innocent by DNA, but 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.000 prosecutors ignore the evidence and move forward with cases against 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:59.720 all of them. Daniel Williams, Joe Dick, Eric Wilson, and 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:15.440 Erick Tice become known as the Norfolk Four. As prosecutors 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:17.800 got ready to try the Norfolk Four, the case took 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:22.000 a serious twist. On February twenty second, nineteen ninety nine, 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.600 a prison inmate named Omar Ballard sent a letter to 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:30.320 his friend. In it, Ballard mentioned Michelle Bosco's murder and wrote, 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:36.760 guess who did that me? Omar Ballard was in prison 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.280 for raping a fourteen year old girl and for beating 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.080 up one of Michelle Bosco's female neighbors a few weeks 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.720 before Michelle died. In fact, right after he'd committed the assault, 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.040 Ballard had been chased through the apartment complex by an 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.880 angry crowd eager to exact revenge. To protect him from 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:57.840 the mob. Michelle let Ballard hide in her and Billy's 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:01.879 apartment until things calm down. Two weeks later, Michelle was 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:09.199 killed in that same apartment by someone she knew. Police 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:12.520 brought Ballard in from prison for questioning. This time, it 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.160 didn't take a polygraph to get a confession. Ballard admitted 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:20.320 to raping and stabbing Michelle Bosco, and he insisted that 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:25.639 he acted alone. Most importantly, police finally had their DNA match. 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:29.360 The seaman at the crime scene belonged to Omar Ballard. 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:32.840 I don't know. I guess something just tacked to my 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:35.280 head and I went to the kitchen and got a knife, 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:39.000 went back to the room. She was getting ab off 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:41.560 the big or she was already above the big when 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:43.720 I stabbed in the chairs one time, and when she 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:46.240 got on the floor. I think I staid about two 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:48.880 or three more times. I'm not quite sure was anybody 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:50.040 with you during this defense? 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:56.720 No police officers were handed the true perpetrator on a 0:23:56.760 --> 0:24:01.320 silver platter. The wake up call was handling to them literally. 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:06.399 Omar Ballard confessed to this crime and then DNA matched 0:24:06.440 --> 0:24:07.879 him before trial. 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:13.840 Walk away, but prosecutors wouldn't walk away. Instead, they offered 0:24:13.920 --> 0:24:17.480 Joe Dick a plea deal if he testified that everyone 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:20.520 else had been there along with Ballard. For Joe, the 0:24:20.640 --> 0:24:24.600 death penalty would be off the table. It worked. Joe 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:27.480 Dick pled guilty and agreed to testify against the others 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:31.359 as he'd been told. In short order, Derek Tice was 0:24:31.400 --> 0:24:34.600 convicted of murder and Eric Wilson was convicted of rape. 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:38.160 As for Daniel Williams, he'd pled guilty to both rape 0:24:38.200 --> 0:24:43.480 and murder only a few weeks before Ballard's letter turned up. Daniel, Joe, 0:24:43.520 --> 0:24:47.480 and Derek all received life in prison. Eric Wilson was 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:49.680 sentenced to eight and a half years for rape. 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:54.240 There was just something almost Twilight Zone like about this case. 0:24:54.640 --> 0:24:58.320