In 1997, the tabloids were full of speculation and a public outcry started to swell. Many people wanted to figure out the culprits of a gruesome rape and murder that happened that year and when The Norfolk Four were arrested, it seemed on the surface that they had their answer and everyone could sleep peaceful that night.

However, since that time, it has been found that The Norfolk Four were wrongfully convicted and were not the ones who committed the murders. But why were these four young men arrested in the first place and what were the facts that led to their conviction as well?

The Interrogation

IN 1997, Eric Wilson, Joseph Dick, Jr. , Danial Williams, and Derek Tice were all wrongfully convicted of a murder and rape that occurred in 1997. They were given the name of The Norfolk Four at this time. The reason that they were all convicted for this crime was due to false confessions they had given afterwards.

Evidence later came out to point to a lone killer who was responsible for the crime, but that didn’t stop the four men from going to jail for it. The reason for this was due to high-pressure interrogation tactics that were used by the police at that time. These tactics included the death penalty for these young men and a lie detector test under false pretenses.

Despite the confessions that were given, the details provided by the four men never matched the crime scene at all, making it very questionable that they were even there, much less that they had committed the murder and rape. In addition, each of the four members of The Norfolk Four gave a different confession from one another. And once the real killer was found, his confession was so far off from the confessions of the Norfolk Four, that it is a miracle that these four were convicted at all.

The Exoneration of the Norfolk Four

As time went on, more DNA evidence was used to help figure out who actually committed these murders. All of the forensic evidence and DNA found on the scene were linked back to Omar Ballard, a man who was not part of the Norfolk Four. Ballard had also given a confession that matched up better with the physical evidence that was on the scene. Due to these facts, Ballard is now serving a life sentence. While under oath, he swore that he was the only one who committed the crime and he had no outside help.

Relief was slow for those wrongly convicted for the crime. While all of this happened in 1997, it took until 2009 for three for the four men in this group to get released. Tim Kaine, the governor at the time, provided them with conditional pardons, but they still had to register as felons and sex offenders. Eric Wilson was not released because he had served the entirety of his sentence. It wasn’t until 2016 when a federal judge vacated the convictions of Danial Williams and Joseph Dick because they were found innocent of the crimes.

Article written by Rene Taylor. Her work can be found on Politico, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Dominion.…