Case Update: On Tuesday, March 21, 2017, Joseph Dick, Derek Tice, Danial Williams, and Eric Wilson, four innocent Navy veterans known as the ‘Norfolk Four,’ received long-awaited full pardons based on their actual innocence from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. The Norfolk Four were wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in 1997; their case involved troubling issues of police misconduct, false confessions, and unconstitutionally suppressed evidence. See the Press Release here; and the Statement from the Governor’s Office here.
News Update: On October 27, 2010, Detective Robert Glenn Ford, the detective responsible for the wrongful conviction of the Norfolk Four, was convicted of multiple counts of extortion and lying to federal law enforcement officials. Read a press release issued by the legal team here
Norfolk Four
News Update: On October 27, 2010, Detective Robert Glenn Ford, the detective responsible for the wrongful conviction of the Norfolk Four, was convicted of multiple counts of extortion and lying to federal law enforcement officials. Read a press release issued by the legal team here
Norfolk Four
Case History
In the early morning hours of July 8, 1997, Omar Ballard raped and murdered eighteen-year-old Michelle Bosko in her apartment in Norfolk, Virginia. Ballard has admitted, and continues to confirm, that he committed this horrific crime alone.
Although there were multiple clues that should have led police directly to Omar Ballard, instead, less than four hours after Ms. Bosko’s body was discovered, the police jumped to the conclusion that Danial, who lived in the apartment across the hall from the Boskos with his wife Nicole, had committed this heinous crime.
The police’s tunnel vision zeroed in on Danial and later focused on Joe, Eric, and Derek, despite glaring warning signs that these men could not have committed this crime, and long after the evidence conclusively proved that they were innocent of Michelle’s rape and murder.
This misguided focus persisted even after DNA evidence and Ballard’s detailed and uncoerced confession proved that Omar Ballard, and Omar Ballard alone, had raped and murdered Ms. Bosko.
Danial, Joseph, and Derek spent nearly a dozen years behind bars for a crime that another man committed, and Eric served eight-and-a-half years. All the men are still fighting to clear their names.
Please review the following PDF files for more information about the case: