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Speaker 1: Hey there, Laura and I writ are here. This week

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Speaker 1: we're bringing you an update from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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Speaker 1: In Season two of False Confessions, we explored the story

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Speaker 1: of the Norfolk four. This is a classic case of

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Speaker 1: false confessions in all the most horrible ways. It involves

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Speaker 1: tunnel vision and confirmation bias in the investigation police, lying

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Speaker 1: to suspect in the interrogation room, preying on suspects of vulnerabilities,

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Speaker 1: and ignoring forensic evidence. The list goes on and on.

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Speaker 1: It took twenty years for the truth to be acknowledged

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Speaker 1: by the Virginia legal system, and the story of this

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Speaker 1: miscarriage of justice became a rallying point for the entire

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Speaker 1: legal community, and in twenty twenty one, Virginia took action.

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Speaker 1: The state abolished the death penalty, making it the first

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Speaker 1: state in the South to do so. It was clear

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Speaker 1: cut cases of wrongful conviction like this one that finally

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Speaker 1: tip the balance away from injustice and toward righteousness. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to wrongful conviction, false confessions.

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Speaker 2: I'm Laura and I writer and I'm Steve Drisen.

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Speaker 1: Today's case feels like a recurring nightmare. We'll tell you

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Speaker 1: about not one but four US Navy sailors who falsely

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Speaker 1: confess to murdering another sailor's wife. They volunteered to fight

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Speaker 1: for their country, but they ended up fighting for their

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Speaker 1: own freedom.

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Speaker 2: The Norfolk four is an iconic case because it is

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Speaker 2: one of the most colossal screw ups in the history

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Speaker 2: of American justice. I've never thought this case would go

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Speaker 2: to trial, but it did, and they were convicted, and

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Speaker 2: I was stunned.

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Speaker 1: When you think about these guys from all across the

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Speaker 1: United States who signed up to serve their country in

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Speaker 1: the military, and this is what they were handed. It's outrageous.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Steve, you've had family members in the military.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, My father served, and he enlisted less than six

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Speaker 2: months after his own brother was killed at Iwo Jima.

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Speaker 2: I grew up every Memorial Day we would gather by

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Speaker 2: my uncle's graveside and these men in uniform would fire

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Speaker 2: rifles into the air and I can still hear how

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Speaker 2: loud they were to like a seven year old kid.

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Speaker 2: The military was something that was respected in my household.

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Speaker 2: You know, the military is built on honor.

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Speaker 1: The truth is, every one of the Norfolk four was

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Speaker 1: there to serve his country and instead, their reputations and

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Speaker 1: their lives were dragged through the mud.

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Speaker 2: It's like a war zone at the end of this case,

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Speaker 2: with bodies strewn all over the place.

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Speaker 1: But nobody won.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Everybody was a casualty. It took twenty years

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Speaker 2: to right this wrong completely, and it never should have

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Speaker 2: happened in the first place.

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Speaker 1: Today's story starts at the US Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia.

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Speaker 1: It's the world's largest naval base, the headquarters of the

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Speaker 1: Fleet Forces Command, and it all sits on a narrow

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Speaker 1: peninsula separating the Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. That's

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Speaker 1: where the USS Simpson docks at Peer five on July eighth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven, after six days at sea. Among the

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Speaker 1: hundreds of sailors on board is Billy Bosco, a nineteen

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Speaker 1: year old signalman. As his ship maneuvers into place, Billy

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Speaker 1: is scanning the pier. He's hoping to find his eighteen

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Speaker 1: year old bride, Michelle, waiting for him. Billy and Michelle

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Speaker 1: were high school sweethearts from Pittsburgh who'd been married for

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Speaker 1: just three months. They'd met a few years earlier on

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Speaker 1: the school bus when Billy's eye was caught by Michelle's

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Speaker 1: red hair. He tried to impress her by saying, hey, Toots,

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Speaker 1: nice jacket, but it was her a quick response, my

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Speaker 1: name's Michelle, that impressed him. Pretty soon they became inseparable.

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Speaker 1: After graduating, Billy enlisted in the navy. Michelle followed him

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Speaker 1: to Norfolk, where they got married. But when Billy's ship

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Speaker 1: docks that day, there's no Michelle waiting for him. He

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Speaker 1: goes straight home to their tiny apartment off base. Michelle

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Speaker 1: usually kept the place spotlessly clean, but today is horribly different.

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Speaker 1: On the bedroom floor, Billy finds his wife dead, wearing

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Speaker 1: nothing but a black T shirt and surrounded by blood.

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Speaker 1: She's been raped, stabbed, and strangled. Billy searches for the phone,

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Speaker 1: but in his panic, he can't find it. Instead, he

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Speaker 1: runs next door to the apartment of another naval couple,

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Speaker 1: Daniel and Nicole Williams. Billy tells them his wife is dead,

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Speaker 1: and Daniel calls nine one one. The two men go

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Speaker 1: back to the scene, where they a blanket over Michelle's legs.

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Speaker 1: Police arrive just minutes later. There are no signs of

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Speaker 1: forced entry, so police theorized that Michelle knew her attacker

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Speaker 1: and had let him in. They asked Michelle's friends who

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Speaker 1: might have done this. No one has any ideas. The

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Speaker 1: police keep pressing, though, and one friend finally mentions the neighbor,

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Speaker 1: Daniel Williams. Daniel was a twenty five year old sailor

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Speaker 1: from Michigan who'd also just gotten married. But Daniel and

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Speaker 1: his wife, Nicole, had recently gotten some terrible news. They

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Speaker 1: had thought Nicole was expecting, but she wasn't pregnant after all. Instead,

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Speaker 1: she was dying of ovarian cancer. Daniel was grief stricken,

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Speaker 1: but the police had ideas of their own about how

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Speaker 1: he was handling it. They developed a theory that Daniel

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Speaker 1: had become interested in Michelle. It's only been an hour

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Speaker 1: and a half since Michelle's body was found, but police

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Speaker 1: are somehow already convinced they've got their man. With no

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Speaker 1: other leads, ask Daniel Williams to come down to the station.

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Speaker 1: They tell him it's normal to question anyone who'd been

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Speaker 1: involved in discovering a body, and Daniel finds himself alone

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Speaker 1: in an interrogation room, totally unprepared for what's about to happen.

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Speaker 3: This is the worst type of crime you can imagine

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Speaker 3: not only a murder, but a murder rape of a

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Speaker 3: young woman. And these are the kinds of cases that

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Speaker 3: really get the adrenaline of police departments up.

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Speaker 1: That's our friend Richard Leo, one of the globes leading

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Speaker 1: experts on false confessions. He's also co authored a book

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Speaker 1: about the Norfolk Four.

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Speaker 3: It's entrenched in the police culture that when you interrogate,

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Speaker 3: it's because your goal is to get a confession. We

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Speaker 3: all think an innocent person wouldn't falsely confess. So it's

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Speaker 3: a puzzle why would people do something that none of

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Speaker 3: us think we would do.

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Speaker 1: Some of you may remember our explanation of how false

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Speaker 1: confessions happen from last season. If you're new to this podcast,

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Speaker 1: you can check out our first episode or Steve and

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Speaker 1: I take a deep dive into the interrogation room. Here's

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Speaker 1: how it goes. For Daniel Williams, police accuse him of

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Speaker 1: raping and killing Michelle Bosco, and Daniel says he had

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Speaker 1: nothing to do with it. They ask him to take

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Speaker 1: a polygraph and he agrees. He wants to prove his innocence,

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Speaker 1: but police lie to Daniel. They tell him he failed

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Speaker 1: the polygraph when he really passed it. They say the

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Speaker 1: polygraph proves he's guilty.

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Speaker 3: Polygraphs, in any event, are highly unreliable. They're not scientific

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Speaker 3: what police pretend they are. You give a suspect polygraph,

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Speaker 3: you tell them the results indicate that they're lying, and

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Speaker 3: that the machine is scientific and error free. So it's

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Speaker 3: an effective interrogation technique in breaking down somebody's resistance and

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Speaker 3: denials because science has just proven beyond any doubt that

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Speaker 3: they are guilty.

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Speaker 1: Daniel's scared as hell. It's dawning on him that the

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Speaker 1: police will never believe he's innocent. They insist that Daniel

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Speaker 1: needs to admit he attacked Michelle. The interrogation goes on

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Speaker 1: overnight for eight hours, but Daniel won't say he did it. Now,

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Speaker 1: none of the interrogation was taped, so we don't have

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Speaker 1: a perfect record of what happened, but we do know

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Speaker 1: that by early morning Daniel still hadn't confessed. So police

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Speaker 1: bring in a closer, an interrogator who knows how to

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Speaker 1: get confessions, and according to Daniel, that's when things get

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Speaker 1: really rough.

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Speaker 2: So the detective who was the primary instigator in this

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Speaker 2: case was a man named Detective Ford, and Daniel Williams

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Speaker 2: was not equipped to deal with his high stress interrogation tactics.

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Speaker 1: According to Daniel, the detective suggests that he'd been attracted

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Speaker 1: to Michelle. Maybe he couldn't have sex with his dying

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Speaker 1: wife as much as he wanted to. Ford says, maybe

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Speaker 1: Daniel wanted an affair with Michelle and he went to

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Speaker 1: her apartment to get it.

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Speaker 2: Daniel went from the joy of finding someone to spend

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Speaker 2: the rest of his life with to knowing that his

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Speaker 2: wife was going to die painful, miserable death in all likelihood.

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Speaker 2: In the middle of that, he's accused of sexually assaulting

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Speaker 2: and murdering his neighbor. Unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: The interrogation only gets worse from there. Daniels told the

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Speaker 1: evidence against him is rock solid. The death penalty is

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Speaker 1: on the table, Ford tells him unless he cooperates with

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Speaker 1: police and confesses.

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Speaker 2: Daniel is essentially assaulted with threats of the death penalty,

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Speaker 2: lies about the evidence against him, screaming, shouting, breaking him down,

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Speaker 2: accusing him of being a liar, and after a long

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Speaker 2: period of time, Daniel agrees to a preconceived story that

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Speaker 2: was fed to him by Detective Ford.

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Speaker 1: That's when police finally turned on the tape recorder.

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Speaker 4: I got her in the back round and I forced

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Speaker 4: her to the floor. I forced her to have intercourse

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Speaker 4: with me. She resisted, and I hit her a couple

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Speaker 4: of times in my hand. I grabbed a flat, hard

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Speaker 4: shoe and I struck her with it once, and I

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Speaker 4: got up and I left.

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Speaker 1: Soon enough, though, police realized they've got a problem. While

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Speaker 1: they're recording Daniel's confession. The autopsy report comes back and

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Speaker 1: they learned Michelle hadn't been beaten with a shoe, she'd

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Speaker 1: actually been stabbed. So now police have to feed Daniel

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Speaker 1: a news story.

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Speaker 5: So you stabbed her box me three times?

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Speaker 4: That Greg, that is correct.

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Speaker 3: People look at these confessions and say, well, geez, you know,

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Speaker 3: they described the crime scene, they described the weapon. People

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Speaker 3: don't know that when an innocent person is broken down

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Speaker 3: and falsely confesses, the police fed them the crime facts,

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Speaker 3: and the person, after many hours, repeated that back.

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Speaker 1: By seven o'clock the next morning, Daniel Williams has become

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Speaker 1: a confessed killer. He's arrested and calls his mom right

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Speaker 1: away from jail to recant his confession, but it's too late.

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Speaker 1: Daniel is charged with capital murder, meaning the death penalty

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Speaker 1: is on the table and the Norfolk Police close the case.

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Speaker 1: The case stayed closed for all of four months. That's

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Speaker 1: when results came back from a DNA test on the

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Speaker 1: seamen found on Michelle's body. It was a single mail

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Speaker 1: profile that didn't belong to Daniel Williams.

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Speaker 2: Game over. This is the kind of evidence that exonerates defendants.

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Speaker 2: All of the.

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Speaker 1: Time, Dan should have been on his way home.

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Speaker 2: He and his wife should have been able to spend

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Speaker 2: her remaining days together.

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Speaker 1: His confession was false, the DNA proved, but the police

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Speaker 1: refuse to let go of their belief in Daniel's guilt. Instead,

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Speaker 1: they developed a new theory. Another man must have been

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Speaker 1: there too, and before long they picked out a second suspect.

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Speaker 5: This episode is sponsored by AIG, a leading global insurance company,

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Speaker 5: and Paul Weiss Rifkin, Wharton and Garrison, a leading international

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Speaker 5: law firm. The AIG pro Bono program provides free legal

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Speaker 5: services and other support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals

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Speaker 5: most in need, and recently they announced that working to

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Speaker 5: reform the criminal justice system will become a key pillar

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Speaker 5: of the program's mission. Paul Weiss has long had an

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Speaker 5: unwavering commitment to providing impactful, pro bono legal assistance to

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Speaker 5: the most vulnerable members of our society and in support

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Speaker 5: of the public interest, including extensive work in the criminal

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Speaker 5: justice area.

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Speaker 1: Joe Dick was twenty one, a Navy sailor who rented

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Speaker 1: a room from Daniel and Nicole Williams. Joe had grown

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Speaker 1: up in Baltimore with major intellectual disabilities that made him

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Speaker 1: think more like a child. Joe was eager to please

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Speaker 1: and very easy to intimidate. As a high schooler, he

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Speaker 1: worked at his church mowing the lawn until one day

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Speaker 1: when the mower clawed, Joe reached inside and the blade

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Speaker 1: cut off a couple of his fingers. After that, whenever

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Speaker 1: his high school shop teachers told him to use machinery

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Speaker 1: that he didn't understand, Joe would hide until class was over. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: Joe couldn't hide from Detective Ford. Six months after Michelle's death,

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Speaker 1: naval security turns Joe over for interrogation. Detective Ford accuses

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Speaker 1: Joe of helping Daniel kill Michelle Bosco. Now Joe is

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Speaker 1: really confused because he remembers being on in his ship

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Speaker 1: the night Michelle was killed. But again Ford administers a

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Speaker 1: polygraph and says Joe failed. Ford shows Joe a picture

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Speaker 1: of Michelle lying dead on the floor and says he'll

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Speaker 1: get the death penalty unless he admits helping Daniel killer.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty clear there's only one story Ford will accept.

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Speaker 3: Innocent suspects come to see their situation as hopeless, that

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Speaker 3: there's no way out other than to give the interrogator

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Speaker 3: what they want, and the interrogator is offering them a

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Speaker 3: way out by suggesting they can go home, or they'll

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Speaker 3: mitigate their damage, or or they can just put an

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Speaker 3: end to the interrogation. Most people don't know police are

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Speaker 3: trained in these manipulative techniques. And of course, if the

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Speaker 3: police have the right person, that's a good thing as

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Speaker 3: long as they follow the law. But sometimes they get

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Speaker 3: the wrong person.

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Speaker 1: Soon enough, Detective Ford turns on the recorder and Joe

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Speaker 1: Dick confesses to helping Daniel rape and murder Michelle Bosco.

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Speaker 1: At least he does the best he can.

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Speaker 6: Why did you two take it upon yourselves to rape

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Speaker 6: and murder this woman?

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Speaker 4: Don't know?

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Speaker 6: Didn't you describe the knife? All I can say about

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Speaker 6: the knife is it looked like a normal kitchen knife

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Speaker 6: that you would use for Nader song, Charlotte.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Joe Dick is slow and low functioning and highly suggestible,

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Speaker 3: and these are personality traits that make somebody more vulnerable

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Speaker 3: to making false confessions. And so it took less time

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Speaker 3: to break Joe Dick than it took to break the others.

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Speaker 2: Joe Dick was even less equipped to deal with the

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Speaker 2: interrogation tactics of Detective Ford. He was a follower in

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Speaker 2: the truest sense of the word, and Detective Ford took

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Speaker 2: advantage of that.

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Speaker 1: On this confession. Joe is charged with capital murder as

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Speaker 1: Daniel's co defendant. The police were sure that this time

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Speaker 1: they'd closed the case. Then within weeks, Joe's DNA is

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Speaker 1: compared to the semen from the crime scene. Turns out

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Speaker 1: the DNA doesn't belong to him either. Neither Joe Dick

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Speaker 1: nor Daniel Williams could have been the attacker. But instead

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Speaker 1: of looking outside their circle of suspects, police decide to

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Speaker 1: expand it. They insist that Daniel and Joe must still

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Speaker 1: be guilty, but now they decide a third man must

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Speaker 1: have been involved too.

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Speaker 2: You know, when faced with compelling evidence of innocence, compelling

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Speaker 2: evidence that your theory is wrong. You should be examining

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Speaker 2: the theory, not trying to reinterpret facts to create a

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Speaker 2: new theory which accommodates the DNA evidence. We see this

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Speaker 2: over and over again. When prosecutions start changing their theories

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Speaker 2: in midstream, you have to be very concerned and an

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Speaker 2: injustice is about to happen.

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Speaker 1: By this point, two injustices had already happened, and more

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Speaker 1: were still to come. Joe's lawyer told him that his

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Speaker 1: best hope of escaping the electric chair would be if

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Speaker 1: he identified one more perpetrator. Pretty soon, Joe came up

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Speaker 1: with a third name, Eric Wilson, and on April eighth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, Eric became the next domino waiting to fall.

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Speaker 1: Eric Wilson was a twenty one year old naval recruit

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Speaker 1: from Texas. He was an eagle scout, the kind of

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Speaker 1: guy who'd walk girls home from parties when their dates

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Speaker 1: got too drunk. On April eighth, Detective Ford starts interrogating

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Speaker 1: Eric Wilson once again. Ford administers a polygraph and tells

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Speaker 1: Eric he flunked it, just like with Joe. Ford slaps

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Speaker 1: a picture of Michelle's dead body on the table. And

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Speaker 1: says he can prove Eric helped Daniel and Joe commit

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Speaker 1: the crime. It was all bullshit. Eric barely even knew

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Speaker 1: Daniel or Joe. But after hours in the interrogation room,

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Speaker 1: Eric starts to doubt his own memory. Maybe he really

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Speaker 1: was lying and didn't realize it.

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Speaker 3: People come to doubt themselves and their memories or beliefs

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Speaker 3: in interrogations. It's a high pressure game of deception, manipulation,

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Speaker 3: persuasion to get people who deny committing a crime to

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Speaker 3: confess to committing it.

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Speaker 1: Eventually, Eric agrees to the cop story. Detective Ford turns

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Speaker 1: on the recorder and Eric repeats what he's been told

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Speaker 1: that he, Joe and Daniel raped Michelle, but he says

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Speaker 1: he left before the stabbing started.

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Speaker 7: I grabbed Michelle by either the shoulders or the upper arm.

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Speaker 2: I can't remember exactly. I didn't know what to do.

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Speaker 2: I was real confused.

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Speaker 8: Well, Dan ended up raping her, and.

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Speaker 2: LEVI went in next and I start.

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Speaker 1: And soon enough Eric Wilson is charged as capital defendant

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Speaker 1: number three.

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Speaker 3: He said that the interrogation was so coercive that he

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00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:13,159
Speaker 3: would have said anything if they had told him that

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Speaker 3: he needed to confess to the killing of John F. Kennedy.

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Speaker 3: He would have said he handed Oswald the gun. He

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Speaker 3: would have said anything just to get out of there

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Speaker 3: at the end of many, many hours that broke him down.

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Speaker 1: But again, weeks pass, the DNA is tested, and yet

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Speaker 1: again it's not a match. By mid June, police are

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Speaker 1: looking for a fourth man.

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Speaker 2: Oh for three. This is bad enough for Joe Dick

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Speaker 2: and Dan Williams and Eric Wilson. Imagine what it's like

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Speaker 2: for Billy Bosco. The worst possible nightmare you can imagine.

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Speaker 2: But it only gets worse because please keep telling him,

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Speaker 2: it's not just one person that raped and killed your wife,

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Speaker 2: it's two and then three. She's being violated over and

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Speaker 2: over again. He has to relive the trial every time.

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Speaker 2: The police bring in somebody else to this story, and

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Speaker 2: it's all a lie.

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Speaker 1: To find their fourth man, police go back to Joe Dick.

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Speaker 1: After a lot more questioning, Joe offers another name, George Clark.

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Speaker 1: Now police have no idea who George Clark might be,

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Speaker 1: or if this person even exists, so they bring Joe

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Speaker 1: an old Navy yearbook. Joe flips through it and points

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Speaker 1: to a picture of a former sailor named Derek Tice. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Joe says, that looks like him. Derek Tye was born

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Speaker 1: in North Carolina, a Southerner who called his elders sir

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Speaker 1: and ma'am. Derek was really smart, but he had a

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Speaker 1: learning disability and never did well in school. He scraped

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Speaker 1: through graduation and enlisted in the Navy to get trained

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Speaker 1: as a paramedic. But now it's Derek Tye's turn to

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Speaker 1: be questioned by Detective Ford. When Derek says he knows

335
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Speaker 1: nothing about Michelle Bosco's murder, Ford falsely tells Derek that

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Speaker 1: physical evidence had already proven him guilty.

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Speaker 3: Police routinely pretend to have evidence they don't have, state

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Speaker 3: that there is evidence that doesn't exist. That's an acceptable

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Speaker 3: technique in American policing. In the American legal system, unlike

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Speaker 3: in other legal systems.

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Speaker 1: Ford follows the same playbook that he used on the

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Speaker 1: other three. He administers a polygraph and tells Derek he

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Speaker 1: failed it again. Ford threatens Derek with the death penalty

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Speaker 1: unless he confesses. After nearly twelve hours of this, Derek

345
00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:34,320
Speaker 1: agrees to confess. Just like the others on tape, He

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Speaker 1: repeats the story that Ford tells him that he committed

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Speaker 1: the rape and murder along with Daniel, Joe and Eric.

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Speaker 1: This story is enough for Derek to become the fourth

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Speaker 1: man charged with the attack on Michelle Bosco.

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Speaker 2: Why did you all agree to go with him? I

351
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Speaker 2: agree because of pil pleasure.

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Speaker 4: I can't say why the others did.

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Speaker 2: I believe it is for the same ways.

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Speaker 1: Probably guess what I'm about to tell you next. The

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Speaker 1: DNA is tested yet again and it doesn't belong to

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Speaker 1: Derek either.

357
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Speaker 2: This is false confession number four. Laura. I know you

358
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Speaker 2: don't know much about baseball.

359
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:14,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I do know that no one gets a

360
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Speaker 1: fourth strike.

361
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Speaker 2: You don't get a fourth strike in baseball, and you

362
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Speaker 2: don't get a fourth strike in law enforcement. It's time

363
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Speaker 2: to call this game. It's time to end this charade.

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Speaker 1: All four sailors have been proven innocent by DNA, but

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Speaker 1: prosecutors ignore the evidence and move forward with cases against

366
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Speaker 1: all of them. Daniel Williams, Joe Dick, Eric Wilson, and

367
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Speaker 1: Derek Tice become known as the Norfolk Four. As prosecutors

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00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:57,360
Speaker 1: got ready to try the Norfolk Four, the case took

369
00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:01,560
Speaker 1: a serious twist. On February twenty second, nineteen ninety nine,

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Speaker 1: a prison inmate named Omar Ballard sent a letter to

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Speaker 1: his friend. In it, Ballard mentioned Michelle Bosco's murder and wrote,

372
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Speaker 1: guess who did that me? Omar Ballard was in prison

373
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Speaker 1: for raping a fourteen year old girl and for beating

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Speaker 1: up one of Michelle Bosco's female neighbors a few weeks

375
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Speaker 1: before Michelle died. In fact, right after he'd committed the assault,

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Speaker 1: Ballard had been chased through the apartment complex by an

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Speaker 1: angry crowd eager to exact revenge. To protect him from

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Speaker 1: the mob, Michelle let Ballard hide in her and Billy's

379
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,440
Speaker 1: apartment until things calmed down. Two weeks later, Michelle was

380
00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:48,800
Speaker 1: killed in that same apartment by someone she knew. Police

381
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:52,119
Speaker 1: brought Ballard in from prison for questioning. This time, it

382
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,760
Speaker 1: didn't take a polygraph to get a confession. Ballard admitted

383
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Speaker 1: to raping and stabbing Michelle Bosco, and he insisted that

384
00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 1: he acted alone. Most importantly, police finally had their DNA

385
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Speaker 1: match the semen at the crime scene belonged to Omar Ballard.

386
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Speaker 6: No, no, I guess something, just taking my head and

387
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Speaker 6: I went to the kitchen and got a knife, went

388
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Speaker 6: back to the room, she was getting ab off the bid,

389
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:21,679
Speaker 6: or she was already above the big when I stabbed

390
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:23,679
Speaker 6: in the chairs one time, and when she got on

391
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Speaker 6: the floor, I think I said about two or three

392
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Speaker 6: more times. I'm not quite sure was anybody with you

393
00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:29,600
Speaker 6: during this defense?

394
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Speaker 2: No police officers were handed the true perpetrator on a

395
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:39,879
Speaker 2: silver platter. The wake up call was hand delivered to

396
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:44,880
Speaker 2: them literally. Omar Ballard confessed to this crime and then

397
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:47,479
Speaker 2: DNA matched him before trial.

398
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Speaker 1: Walk away, but prosecutors wouldn't walk away. Instead, they offered

399
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:57,000
Speaker 1: Joe Dick a plea deal if he testified that everyone

400
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,159
Speaker 1: else had been there along with Ballard. For Joe, the

401
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 1: death penalty would be off the table. It worked. Joe

402
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,080
Speaker 1: Dick pled guilty and agreed to testify against the others

403
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,919
Speaker 1: as he'd been told. In short order, Derek Tice was

404
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,199
Speaker 1: convicted of murder and Eric Wilson was convicted of rape.

405
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:17,760
Speaker 1: As for Daniel Williams, he'd pled guilty to both rape

406
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:23,040
Speaker 1: and murder only a few weeks before Ballard's letter turned up. Daniel, Joe,

407
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 1: and Derek all received life in prison. Eric Wilson was

408
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 1: sentenced to eight and a half years for rape.

409
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,800
Speaker 3: There was just something almost Twilight Zone like about this case.

410
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:37,879
Speaker 3: You had four people in prison for a rape and murder.

411
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 3: The DNA evidence did not link to any of them,

412
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,199
Speaker 3: and it linked to somebody else who had a history

413
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 3: of violent crime and rape, and he admitted that he

414
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 3: did it.

415
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,480
Speaker 1: At his own trial in two thousand, Omar Ballard pled

416
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 1: guilty to killing Michelle Bosco, but the prosecution also made

417
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:58,359
Speaker 1: a deal with him in exchange for a sentence of

418
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: life rather than death. Ballard told the court that the

419
00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:05,479
Speaker 1: Norfolk four had participated in the attack. It was the

420
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:11,800
Speaker 1: only time he implicated any of them. Back in prison,

421
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,439
Speaker 1: Ballard returned to his original story over and over. He

422
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:19,160
Speaker 1: insisted that he was the sole perpetrator. That was enough

423
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,680
Speaker 1: for several large law firms to start reinvestigating the Norfolk

424
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:26,640
Speaker 1: Forest convictions. In September two thousand and five, Eric Wilson

425
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,720
Speaker 1: was paroled after serving his full sentence, and in two

426
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:33,359
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine granted a conditional

427
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,879
Speaker 1: pardon to Derek, Daniel and Joe based on the weakness

428
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:39,760
Speaker 1: of the case against them. So all of the Norfolk

429
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,520
Speaker 1: four were out of prison, but they were still living

430
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,560
Speaker 1: as convicted murderers and sex offenders, they still had to

431
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:50,800
Speaker 1: win exoneration. Derek Tice was the first to be granted

432
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 1: a new trial in two thousand and nine. His lawyers

433
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 1: found evidence that he had tried to ask for a

434
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 1: lawyer during questioning, but he wasn't given one in violation

435
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: of his Miranda rights. Before Derek could be retried, two

436
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 1: more bombshells dropped. First, a PBS Frontline episode about the

437
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 1: Norfolk Four aired in twenty ten, featuring none other than

438
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 1: Omar Ballard. During an interview from behind barr as, Ballard

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00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:18,760
Speaker 1: insisted he had acted alone. The second bombshell had to

440
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: do with Detective Ford. In twenty ten, a federal jury

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00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: convicted Ford of extortion. He'd gotten criminal defendants to pay

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00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 1: him to say they deserved shorter sentences because they'd given

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00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 1: valuable information. Ford was sentenced to more than twelve years

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00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,479
Speaker 1: in prison. That was enough to convince prosecutors not to

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00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:40,679
Speaker 1: retry Derek Tice, and he became the first of the

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00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:45,719
Speaker 1: Norfolk Four to win exoneration. In twenty sixteen, a federal

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00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:48,440
Speaker 1: court held a hearing to determine whether Daniel Williams and

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00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,480
Speaker 1: Joe Dick were innocent too. At that hearing, Joe's commanding

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00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: officer testified that Joe had been on duty the night

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00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,080
Speaker 1: of Michelle Bosco's death and couldn't have killed her. It

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00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 1: was testimony that it never came out before because Joe

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00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:06,159
Speaker 1: had been persuaded to plead guilty. In light of this

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00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:09,760
Speaker 1: evidence and everything else that didn't make sense, the judge

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00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:13,760
Speaker 1: granted Daniel and Joe new trials too. By any measure,

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00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: the judge wrote, the evidence shows their innocence. No sane

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00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:23,120
Speaker 1: human being could find them guilty. The prosecution took the hint.

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00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 1: On December fifteenth, twenty sixteen, they decided not to retry

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00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 1: Daniel or Joe either. The only one left was Eric Wilson.

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00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 1: Eric's turn came just a few months later. On March

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00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: twenty first, twenty seventeen, Governor Terry mccaliffe granted absolute pardons

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00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 1: to each of the four men, removing all doubt. Finally,

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00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 1: after twenty years of hell, the Norfolk Four were exonerated.

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00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 3: Counterintuitively, the Norfolk four are lucky. They spent many years

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00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 3: in prison based on false confessions to crimes they didn't commit,

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00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 3: but there was DNA in their case and they got

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00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 3: out These are all earnest, honest, down to earth individuals

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00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 3: who serve their country well, whose wrongful convictions took the

468
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 3: best years of their lives for almost two decades before

469
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 3: they were exonerated.

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00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 1: The Norfolk Force survived a battle they should never have

471
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 1: had to fight, and now they're rebuilding their lives.

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00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 3: Hello.

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00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 1: Dan, this is Laura and Steve. How are you.

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00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 2: It's so nice to finally get a chance to talk

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00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 2: to you dad, and thank you.

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00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,080
Speaker 1: Are you living in Michigan? Are you living in Virginia?

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00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 7: I'm currently living in Michigan now.

478
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 1: And what keeps you busy these days?

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00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 7: After my incarceration? After I got home, I went to

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00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:50,719
Speaker 7: Baker College of Luasso and got my associate's degree and

481
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 7: applied science for welding.

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00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 2: Wonderful? Have you been able to stay working?

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00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 7: I have not stopped working yet.

484
00:29:58,320 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 2: That is phenomenal.

485
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:01,360
Speaker 1: Let's see, you're a Michigan guy. Are you born and

486
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: raised in Michigan?

487
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 3: Yes?

488
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 2: Okay?

489
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: What kind of fishing you like to do? What do

490
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: you go fishing for?

491
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 7: Usually panfish and bass?

492
00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 1: Yep, lakes or streams?

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00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 2: Usually lakes.

494
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:12,720
Speaker 4: Did you ever cook the fish you catch?

495
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:13,000
Speaker 5: Dan?

496
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 7: All the time? Cooking is something that I do enjoy. Also,

497
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 7: since getting out, I have been cooking at our local

498
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 7: BFW in Alasso Sunday.

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00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 1: Breakfast, pancake breakfast, that kind of thing.

500
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 3: Everything.

501
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 7: Yeah, pancakes, French toast, eggs, to order, omelets, breakfast burrito.

502
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 2: You're grill mad.

503
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: Yes, And you're at the VFW, so you're there with

504
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 1: other guys who are in the service. Yes, it's nice

505
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:45,160
Speaker 1: to be with guys with that same experience.

506
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 7: I usually just live life one day at a time

507
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 7: right now and staying positive.

508
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 1: One day at a time is pretty good these days.

509
00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 8: It sounds like to me, the idea that it took

510
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 8: so long to right these wrongs is just hard to fathom.

511
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 2: You know, we claim we care about those in the military,

512
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 2: we care about our vets, and what was done to

513
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 2: these men is just beyond the pale.

514
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 1: Too often it's a fight to exonerate, even people who

515
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:27,560
Speaker 1: are obviously innocent. But it's a fight that's got to

516
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: be one. That's our life's work, freeing false confessors and

517
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 1: sharing their stories with you. For Dan, Joe, Eric and Derek,

518
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,640
Speaker 1: that's the least we can do. Thank you for serving

519
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 1: our country and for letting your stories serve in the

520
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 1: fight against wrongful convictions. Wrongful Conviction False Confessions is a

521
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:53,320
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal

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00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:57,440
Speaker 1: Company Number one Special thanks to our executive producers Jason

523
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 1: Flamm and Kevin Wardis. Production team is headed by Senior

524
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 1: producer and Pope, along with producers Joshi Hammer and Jess Shane.

525
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 1: Our show is mixed by Genie Montalvo. John Colbert is

526
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,800
Speaker 1: our intrepid intern. Our music was composed by Jay Ralph.

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00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: You can follow me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura

528
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:17,400
Speaker 1: and I Wrider, and you.

529
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:20,200
Speaker 2: Can follow me on Twitter at Sdrizzen.

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00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: For more information on the show, visit Wrongful Conviction podcast

531
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 1: dot com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram

532
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and

533
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: on Twitter at wrong Conviction