Kaine grants conditional pardons to ‘Norfolk Four’

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine today granted conditional pardons to three of the “Norfok Four,“ sailors convicted in 1997 of the rape and murder of an 18-year-old newlywed Navy wife in Norfolk.

The conditional pardons mean that the three will be released from jail soon.
Kaine said the fourth of the accused, Eric Wilson, is already out of prison, so a conditional pardon is unnecessary in his case.
The four convicted in the slaying of Michelle Moore-Bosko had petitioned for a full pardon, but Kaine said the petitioners’ cases did not meet that standard.

“I conclude that the petitioners have not conclusively established their innocence and therefore that an absolute pardon is not appropriate,“  Kaine said in a statement. “However, I conclude that the petitioners have raised substantial doubts about their convictions and the propriety of their continued detention.  I therefore grant conditional pardons to Danial Williams, Derek Tice and Joseph Dick, the three petitioners who remain incarcerated.

“The effect of these conditional pardons is to reduce the sentences of the petitioners to time served. The petitioners must meet specific behavioral conditions and remain subject to supervision by the Parole Board for a specific period of time after their release. These conditional pardons are not a conclusive finding of innocence but rather a reduction of sentences.“
Derek Tice, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick Jr. and Wilson each confessed in the months following the murder. After their convictions, the men claimed their confessions were coerced.

Omar Ballard was later convicted and has said he alone raped and killed Moore-Bosko. Only his DNA evidence was found at the scene.

Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims said the state had aggressively supported the convictions of the four.

“The constitution of Virginia vests the governor with an extraordinary power, that of executive clemency,“ Mims said. “This power should be wielded rarely and with great care, since it supersedes the collective judgment of judges and juries. The Office of the Attorney General has represented the interests of the commonwealth and sought justice, as we are bound to do by law, and vigorously defended the multiple convictions of these individuals. I have the utmost respect for Governor Kaine and am confident his decision was made with great care.”

In November, a dozen former FBI agents voiced support for the four sailors they believe are innocent of the 1997 rape and murder of the Norfolk woman.

“It is our unequivocal belief that these former Norfolk sailors were wrongfully convicted,” said Jay Cochran, who retired from the FBI in 1979 and then served as the director of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation of the Virginia State Police until 1985.

Cochran said he and more than two dozen other Richmond-area former FBI agents, after conducting their own review of the case, signed a letter sent to Kaine in July 2008, urging that he grant complete pardons.

The former agents, working solely on their own behalf, said at a news conference that they believe the confessions are false and the result of long and aggressive police interrogations. They said they do not know why two of them also implicated themselves in court.

Wilson was convicted of rape and has since been released from prison. Tice, Dick and Williams each received two life sentences and are still behind bars. Ballard is also serving two life sentences.

The case has attracted the attention of best-selling author John Grisham, who is writing a screenplay of the events.