Case Status:
On August 6, 2009, three of the Norfolk Four received conditional pardons from Governor Tim Kaine. Derek Tice, Danial Williams, and Joseph Dick, Jr. have been released from prison and rejoined their families after more than 11 harsh years in prison. Please click here for the Norfolk Four press release.
On September 14, 2009, Judge Richard L. Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Derek Tice’s federal habeas petition and overturned Mr. Tice’s conviction. In the opinion, Judge Williams finds that the state trial court’s grant of Mr. Tice’s habeas petition based on the violation of his constitutional rights was correct, and that the Virginia Supreme Court’s reversal of that decision was an “objectively unreasonable” application of federal law. Click here to read the opinion in its entirety.
get involvedLARRY MCCANN
Summary of Crime Scene Reconstruction Report
Larry McCann conducted a blind two-stage analysis, first considering only the forensic and crime scene evidence, and then also considering the confessions and profiles of Williams, Tice, Dick, Ballard, and Wilson. In the first stage, McCann concluded that only one person raped, stabbed, and strangled Michelle Bosko. In the second stage, McCann concluded that dozens of key “facts” in the confessions of Williams, Tice, Dick, and Wilson were inconsistent with the evidence, and that those men were not involved.
Ultimately, McCann concluded that “[s]tatements made by Ballard to police investigators are consistent with the physical evidence found at the crime scene and found during the victim’s autopsy.” By contrast, McCann concluded:
Williams, Tice, Dick, and Wilson are in this case only because they included themselves by confession. There is no physical evidence linking them to the scene, their statements were directly contradictory to the physical evidence found at the scene, their statements are contrary to the victim’s injuries and condition found at autopsy, and their statements are often implausible and changing.
Read the full Larry McCann Crime Scene Reconstruction Report (PDF).
Biography
The expert, retired Virginia State Police officer Larry McCann, has 29 years of law enforcement experience, including 26 years with the Virginia State Police and a year as a fellow at the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. McCann has been involved in the investigation of over 2,000 homicides. He is now an expert consultant with the Academy Group, Inc., a forensic behavioral science consulting firm.
- McCann’s Affidavit
Back to People Page.