The four Navy veterans who were wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of a woman in Norfolk in 1997 and served years in prison, were formally pardoned Tuesday by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D). Investigations showed the sailors were coerced into falsely admitting their involvement in the crime, and the Norfolk police detective who led the investigation is now in prison for other misconduct on the job.
The pardons are the final chapter in the saga of the “Norfolk Four,” who were convicted and imprisoned in the death of 18-year-old Michelle Moore-Bosko even as another man confessed and matched the DNA at the crime scene. Danial Williams, Derek Tice and Joseph Dick were convicted of rape and murder and given life sentences, and a fourth sailor, Eric Wilson, was convicted of rape. Williams, Tice and Dick were conditionally pardoned and released by then-Gov. Timothy Kaine (D) in 2009, while Wilson had already been released.
But Kaine had stopped short of clearing their names, and the sailors continued to seek full pardons and freedom from being permanently classified as sex offenders. McAuliffe took that step Tuesday after a federal judge last year ruled that they were actually innocent.
“These pardons close the final chapter on a grave injustice that has plagued these 4 men for nearly 20 years,” McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said Tuesday. “While former Governor Kaine had initially granted conditional pardons in the case, more exculpatory information discovered since then and detailed by [U.S. District] Judge John Gibney during exhaustive evidentiary proceedings indicate that absolute pardons are appropriate.”
In a press release, defendant Wilson said, “I speak for all four of us in expressing our deepest thanks to Governor McAuliffe, who has given us our lives back with these full pardons. We have been haunted by these wrongful convictions for twenty years, which have created profound pain, hardships, and stress for each of us and our families. We now look forward to rebuilding our reputations and our lives.”
