Va. governor pardons ‘Norfolk 4’

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine today ordered freedom for three of four former sailors convicted of raping and killing another sailor’s wife in 1997.

Kaine denied the pardon request of a fourth former sailor, Eric Wilson, who spent 8½ years in prison for raping 18-year-old Michelle Moore-Bosko but was acquitted of her murder.

He granted conditional pardons to three others, meaning Derek Tice, Danial Williams and Joseph Dick Jr. — who along with Wilson were known as the “Norfolk Four” — will spend no more time in prison. They each had been sentenced to life for the crime.

Kaine said he decided there were “grave doubts about at least the level of their complicity in the crime.” Each of the men confessed to the murder but then, after they were convicted, claimed their confessions were coerced.

A fifth man, Omar Ballard, later was convicted and has said he alone raped and killed Moore-Bosko. His was the only DNA found at the scene.

Moore-Bosko’s dismayed parents said Kaine bowed to political pressure in making the decision.

“Let him walk in our shoes, let’s see how he would feel,” a sobbing Carol Moore told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from her Pittsburgh home. “This is nothing but political and John Grisham.”

Grisham, a novelist famous for his legal thrillers, has said he believed the Norfolk Four were innocent and he was writing a screenplay about their case.

Since 2000, Grisham has donated more than $390,000 to Virginia Democrats, including $175,000 to Kaine and his political action committee, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a statewide tracker of campaign donations.

“Obviously, Mr. Grisham’s wealth and influence are far more important to Governor Kaine’s political aspirations and public image than truth or justice,” Moore and her husband John said in an e-mailed statement.

Grisham serves on the board of directors of The Innocence Project, which fights to free wrongfully convicted inmates. The head of the organization said those convicted in 25 percent of the 241 DNA exonerations nationwide gave false confessions.

“There is overwhelming evidence that these men are innocent and that another man committed this crime,” Innocence Project Co-Director Peter Neufeld said.

Virginia Attorney General Bill Mims, whose office had defended the convictions, said, “I have the utmost respect for Governor Kaine and am confident his decision was made with great care.”

Kaine inherited the two pardon requests from former Gov. Mark Warner, who received them in 2005 shortly before leaving office. Supporters had pleaded with Kaine to act on the requests before leaving office in January.

Former attorneys general and FBI agents, several lawyers and a homicide detective came to the defense of the Norfolk Four, saying they were wrongfully convicted primarily because of false confessions given under threats of the death penalty.

Supporters say the pattern of the victim’s wounds suggested there was only one assailant and that the tidy appearance of her apartment was inconsistent with a gang rape and murder. They also claim the confessions conflicted with each other and crime scene evidence.

Kaine was the last hope for the three men, who had exhausted all other legal remedies.

In 2006 a Norfolk Circuit judge vacated Tice’s conviction, saying Tice’s lawyer should have tried to get his conviction thrown out because he already had invoked his right to remain silent. The Virginia Supreme Court reinstated it two years later.

“It is truly shameful and a disservice to the citizens of Virginia and our family, that the decisions of the courts have been ignored, and confessed rapists and murderers are being set free,” the Moores said in their statement.

It is not clear when Tice, Williams and Dick will go free.

Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the department would follow the governor’s orders “as quickly as we possibly can.”

When released, the men will be subject to supervision by the state parole board, Kaine said.