Dean Christopher Roberts: British Columbia: Courthouse news presents a 'murder case involving “uncharted territory” in Canadian law' - a British Columbia man convicted of killing his family in 1995 (following a confession obtained during a 'Mr. Big sting operation') claims that prosecutors are denying his legal team access to evidence for DNA testing that may prove his innocence..."“In other countries, there is authority, there are statutes or policies about post-conviction disclosure and DNA testing,” Campbell said. “In Canada, we don’t have very much legal authority in this area, so that’s why this case is so interesting. It’s kind of uncharted territory in this country.” Use of the Mr. Big sting and scanty physical evidence puts the conviction on shaky ground, Campbell said. Though Roberts appealed unsuccessfully in 1997, Campbell added. Mr. Big stings can produce dubious confessions. “Because of the tactics and the very strong incentives that are offered during these Mr. Big investigations, it can lead to confessions that may be unreliable, so that’s why they’re controversial. And this was one of the early Mr. Big cases in British Columbia, so it’s one of the first of its kind, and I think they do things differently now than they did back in those days,” Campbell added. “In this case, the conviction was based mainly on a Mr. Big confession. There was very little evidence other than the Mr. Big confession.”

STORY: "DNA murder case charts new ground," by reporter Darryl Greer, published by Courthouse News on March 24, 2017;

GIST: "In a murder case involving “uncharted territory” in Canadian law,  Dean Christopher Roberts was convicted in 1995 of the July 1994 murders of his wife and infant sons in the small community of Cranbrook in Southeastern British Columbia. In his March 17 petition to the British Columbia Supreme Court, Roberts asks the court to order the province’s attorney general to make exhibits from his case available for testing, including a cigarette butt found near the body of his son Josiah, fingernail clippings from the body of his wife Susan, ropes found on the necks of Josiah and Susan, and bags near where their bodies were found. Roberts’ conviction rested upon a confession made to undercover police officers in a controversial “Mr. Big” sting, where police pose as high-level underworld crime figures who goad suspects into admitting past criminal conduct, according to the 6-page petition. Roberts’ attorney Jeffrey Campbell told Courthouse News in a phone interview that case law involving post-conviction testing of evidence is scant in Canada. “In other countries, there is authority, there are statutes or policies about post-conviction disclosure and DNA testing,” Campbell said. “In Canada, we don’t have very much legal authority in this area, so that’s why this case is so interesting. It’s kind of uncharted territory in this country.” Use of the Mr. Big sting and scanty physical evidence puts the conviction on shaky ground, Campbell said. Though Roberts appealed unsuccessfully in 1997, Campbell added. Mr. Big stings can produce dubious confessions. “Because of the tactics and the very strong incentives that are offered during these Mr. Big investigations, it can lead to confessions that may be unreliable, so that’s why they’re controversial. And this was one of the early Mr. Big cases in British Columbia, so it’s one of the first of its kind, and I think they do things differently now than they did back in those days,” Campbell added. “In this case, the conviction was based mainly on a Mr. Big confession. There was very little evidence other than the Mr. Big confession.”"

The entire  story can be found at:

https://www.courthousenews.com/dna-murder-case-charts-new-ground-canada/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.

The Norfolk Four: Virginia; Eric Wilson; Danial Williams; Joseph Dick; Derek Tice: A fascinating read: John E. Reid & Associates asks, "Why did the Norfolk Four confess?" in an 'Investigative Tip' published following the explosive 2010 Frontline exposé of police interrogation tactics used in the investigation.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In light of Virginia  Governor Terry McAuliffe's recent grant of absolute pardons to the former sailors known as the 'Norfolk Four' I was intrigued to find an educational  'Investigative Tip' published by John E. Reid & Associates after broadcast of an  explosive PBS Frontline documentary in 1910. Reid concludes:  "The lesson from the Norfolk Four is clear: threatening a suspect with inevitable consequences  (the death penalty) has no place in a properly conducted interrogation." That's a no-brainer to me. From a perspective of what we know about the causes of false confessions in 2017, I disagree with the place where Reid  draws the line on permissable interrogation tactics when he writes: "Why did the Norfolk Four confess? These suspects were adults suffering from no diminished mental capacity and were not deprived of basic biological needs. The length of the interrogations (8-11 hours) were substantial, but not so long as to automatically cause a false confession. This is especially true considering that, reportedly, more than an hour was spent in prepping the suspects to give an audio-taped confession that was consistent with the current police theory. Lying to a suspect about failing a polygraph examination certainly would not cause an innocent suspect to confess. While the interrogator was described as intense, tenacious and unrelenting this, in and of itself, would not be apt to cause an innocent person to confess." That's my view. Why not read the entire 'Investigative' at the link below and send me your comments at hlevy15@gmail.com.

Harold Levy; Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.

INVESTIGATOR TIP: "The Danger of Threatening Inevitable Consequences During an Interrogation," published by  John E. Reid & Associates, in March/April 2011;

CREDIT AND PERMISSION STATEMENT: "Permission is hereby granted to those who wish to share or copy this article. In those instances, the following Credit Statement must be included "This Investigator Tip was developed by John E. Reid and Associates Inc. 800-255-5747 / www.reid.com." Inquiries regarding Investigator Tips should be directed to Janet Finnerty jfinnerty@reid.com."

GIST: (This statement runs unedited in its entirety); "A recent Frontline episode dealt with interrogation techniques and false confessions.¹ The presented case involved the 1997 rape and murder of Michelle Bosko from Norfolk, VA. The following is a synopsis of facts as reported by Frontline: The victim's husband, who was a sailor in the navy, discovered her body and sought help from the next door neighbor, a fellow sailor named Daniel Williams, who then contacted the police. While the husband had an air-tight alibi, suspicion focused on Williams. Therefore, they asked him to come to the station for a voluntary interview which eventually turned into an 11 hour interrogation. During the interrogation, Williams was administered a polygraph examination which he was falsely told indicated deception. After being threatened with the death penalty, Williams confessed to the rape and murder to avoid execution. In his initial confession he stated that he struck the victim with a shoe and beat her to death. Following the autopsy it was determined that the victim died from stab wounds and strangulation. Williams was re-interrogated and, after the detective revealed the victim's actual cause of death, gave a second confession consistent with the autopsy findings. Four months later, the crime lab determined that Williams' DNA did not match crime scene evidence. Rather than doubt the integrity of Williams' confession, the police were convinced that there must have been another perpetrator. Williams was again interrogated and threatened with the death penalty if he did not name his accomplice. He named Joseph Dick Jr., a fellow sailor who was given a polygraph examination which he purportedly failed, and threatened with the death penalty if he continued to lie. Believing that he would be exonerated based on DNA evidence, Dick confessed to helping Williams rape and murder Michelle Bosko. When the DNA analysis came back negative, Dick thought charges against him would be dropped. Instead, the investigator was convinced that there must have been a third person involved in the crime. By this time Dick was represented by council who was convinced, based on Dick's confession, that his client must be guilty. The defense attorney recommended that Dick cooperate with the police to avoid the death penalty. Dick provided the name of another accomplice, Derek Tice, who was subjected to lengthy interrogations (after his request for an attorney was ignored) and threatened with the death penalty. Like the others, Tice confessed. However, the crime scene DNA did not match Tice so he was re-interrogated to find out who else was involved in the crime. Tice selected the photo of a sailor named Eric Wilson who also was persuaded to confess, but whose DNA also did not match the crime scene. This cycle was repeated until eventually seven sailors were named as being involved in the murder of Michelle Bosko. Despite the fact that none of the seven defendants' DNA matched crime scene evidence, all were charged with the rape and murder. During the course of the trials, Dick backed out of a plea bargain, and refused to offer testimony against the latter three defendants. Because his confession and testimony was the only evidence implicating these defendants, charges against them were dropped. Before the first of the four remaining trials began, a woman approached the police with a letter she received from an inmate named Omar Ballard. Ballard was serving time for beating a woman in the same apartment complex where Michelle Bosko lived, and raping a 14-year-old girl two miles from Bosko's apartment complex. In the letter, Ballard confessed to killing Michelle Bosko. Ballard was questioned by police and, in a short period of time, confessed that he alone raped and murdered Ms. Bosko. Ballard's DNA matched the crime scene DNA. The prosecution had to either acknowledge that the police obtained four false confessions or somehow attempt to reconcile all of the evidence, which is the path they chose. The theory presented at trial was that the seven sailors wanted to rape and murder Ms. Bosko but couldn't get into her apartment so they approached a stranger, Omar Ballard who agreed to get them into her apartment and commit the crime with them. As part of a plea agreement Joe Dick testified against Eric Wilson and Derek Tice, both of whom were found guilty and sentenced to 81/2 years and life in prison respectfully. After realizing the futility of persuading a jury that their confessions were false, Williams and Dick both plead guilty and received life sentences. In 2007, after reviewing legal appeals, the Virginia Governor granted conditional pardons to Williams, Dick and Tice (Wilson had already been paroled). A team of attorneys is still working to clear the names of what the media has called the "Norfolk Four." If the information presented by Frontline is accurate, certainly there is a high probability that these four confessions are false. Why did the Norfolk Four confess? These suspects were adults suffering from no diminished mental capacity and were not deprived of basic biological needs. The length of the interrogations (8-11 hours) were substantial, but not so long as to automatically cause a false confession. This is especially true considering that, reportedly, more than an hour was spent in prepping the suspects to give an audio-taped confession that was consistent with the current police theory. Lying to a suspect about failing a polygraph examination certainly would not cause an innocent suspect to confess. While the interrogator was described as intense, tenacious and unrelenting this, in and of itself, would not be apt to cause an innocent person to confess. The other tactic common to each interrogation was that these four suspects were threatened with an inevitable consequence -- each of these suspects reported that he confessed to avoid the death penalty. The standard rule of thumb relating to improper interrogation techniques is that the investigator should not offer the suspect any threats or promises. In this context, threats are often thought of as threats of physical harm, isolation or deprivation of biological needs. There is, however, a much more powerful threat that can be made during an interrogation -- threatening the suspect with inevitable consequences. These four suspects were offered the most potent threat possible - the threat of death i.e., "If you continue to lie about this you will die. Do you want to die? That's what will happen if you continue to tell me you didn't do this". This was then coupled with the promise of life, i.e.., "I can help you out on this thing. If you tell me the truth I will work it out so you will not face the death penalty. You will be able to live." Who in their right mind wouldn't accept life over death? When an innocent suspect is convinced that he is helpless to avoid consequences of a crime (a long prison sentence, having children placed in foster homes, being deported to a foreign country, having a license or certificate revoked, etc.) this suspect will do anything in an effort to reduce those perceived consequences. As illustrated by this case, when threatened with inevitable consequences, innocent suspects will not only confess, but adjust their confession to please the interrogator (Dick offered seven different statements) and testify against defendants the suspect knows are innocent. Concepts within the Reid Technique have been criticized under the guise of threatening inevitable consequences. Specifically, interrogating a suspect on the presumption of guilt, discouraging denials from surfacing and the use of an alternative question, e.g., "Did you plan this out for months in advance, or did it just happen on the spur of the moment?" These criticisms are baseless. Expressing high confidence in a person's guilt certainly would not motivate an innocent person to believe that it would be in his best interest to falsely confess. Rather, the innocent person would be motivated to more strongly maintain his innocence or terminate the interrogation. Similarly, discouraging a suspect from voicing denials will cause the typical innocent suspect to become more forceful in their denials or terminate the interrogation, not to believe that because the interrogator is not accepting their denial that it would somehow be in their best interest to confess. Finally, it has been argued that the alternative question forces the innocent suspect to incriminate himself. Nothing could be further from the truth. A suspect always has a third choice which is to reject the alternative question and maintain his innocence. None of the tactics or techniques within the Reid Technique would cause an innocent person to believe that they would benefit by offering a false confession. However, this is not the case when a suspect is threatened with inevitable consequences, which is why we are adamantly opposed to this interrogation tactic. The case involving the Norfolk Four was rife with failures within the criminal justice system. The police department was negligent in allowing the detective, who had a reputation for unethical practices, to conduct these interrogations. The detective was eventually convicted of multiple counts of extortion and lying to federal law enforcement agents. The prosecutor stubbornly refused to acknowledge that four uncorroborated confessions were probably false. A defense attorney failed to challenge a confession his client claimed was false because of coercion. The prosecution's primary case was built on confessions and testimony from individuals who were motivated to avoid the death penalty. Interestingly, when the prosecutor offered Ballard a deal to avoid the death penalty if he testified that the other four defendants committed the crime with him, he refused. The lesson from the Norfolk Four is clear: threatening a suspect with inevitable consequences has no place in a properly conducted interrogation.'

The entire 'Investigation Tip' can be found at:

http://www.reid.com/educational_info/r_tips.html?serial=1299080308558447

See previous post for the PBS Outfront introduction to the 2010 documentary, at the site below; "Eight men charged. Five confessions. But only one DNA match. Why would four innocent men confess to a brutal crime they didn't commit? In The Confessions, FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel (Innocence Lost, An Ordinary Crime) investigates the conviction of four men -- current and former sailors in the U.S. Navy -- for the rape and murder of a Norfolk, Va., woman in 1997. In the first television interviews with the "Norfolk Four" since their release, Bikel learns of some of the high-pressure police interrogation techniques -- the threat of the death penalty, sleep deprivation, intimidation -- that led each of the men to confess, despite the lack of any evidence linking them to the crime. Twenty-five-year-old Danial Williams, married for 11 days, was the first to be arrested for the rape and murder of Michelle Bosko. He tells FRONTLINE how he came to confess after 11 hours of interrogation: "Being in a small room, and you have a person sitting over across the table from you that's getting in your face, yelling at you, calling you a liar, poking you in the chest with their finger, and then turns around and says, 'Well, I can help you if you tell me the truth,'" Williams explains. "It went on and on and on throughout the night, with them calling me a liar, telling me I needed to tell the truth. And I kept telling them: 'I am telling you the truth. I didn't do it.' I kept telling them over and over. ... I should have stood my ground." Instead, Williams gave the Norfolk police detectives a confession. And when that confession proved inconsistent with the forensic evidence, detectives went back to him for an additional confession that better fit the facts. And Williams, once again, gave it to them. He got a court-appointed lawyer. "No one in Virginia believes that you confess to a murder you didn't commit; no one believes it," says Danny Shipley, Williams' attorney. "And to be quite frank with you, when you approach a case, ... [the death penalty] changes everything. All your decisions that you make are guided by the fact that, if you make the wrong decision, you make the wrong call, your client is dead." Williams' DNA failed to match the DNA at the crime scene, but that didn't save him. Police picked up Williams' roommate, Joe Dick, and began another interrogation. "They started asking me where I was when this happened, and I told them that I was on the ship," Dick said. But Dick's interrogation was conducted by one of Norfolk's most formidable detectives, Robert Glenn Ford, who had a reputation for getting confessions. "Ford's saying I'm lying," Dick tells FRONTLINE. "He's starting to get ticked off. He's raising his voice. He keeps coming back with: 'We know you were there. We can prove you were there. You can get the death penalty.' I kept denying it. We went and did a polygraph. He comes back with the results, and he says I'm still lying, that I failed the polygraph. ... Eventually I'd had enough of him, and I just wanted to tell him anything to get him off my back and to shut him up. I was tired; emotionally, mentally worn down." He gave a confession. Then, confused by police theories and interrogations, Dick started to believe in his own guilt. He implicated another sailor, Eric Wilson, who also confessed. In the end, four men would confess to the rape and murder of Michelle Bosko and another three would be arrested before an eighth man, a convicted rapist named Omar Ballard, was found to be the only DNA match for the Bosko murder. Ballard confessed to the rape and murder of Michelle Bosko, and said that he did it alone -- a statement that fit the forensic facts. But with seven other people already in jail, the police and prosecution refused to change course. Instead, they presented a new theory of the crime in which Ballard met the group outside, and all eight men committed gang rape and murder. From an initial theory of one assailant, namely Danial Williams, the prosecution theory now involved eight, including Ballard. In a recent interview from prison, Ballard tells FRONTLINE that police pressured him to say the other men participated in the crime with him, a statement that he says was not true. "It was made clear from the jump that unless I said somebody else was with me, that it wasn't going to be the truth," Ballard says. "The only truth they wanted to hear [was] that I did it with someone else." "Even when there's other evidence of innocence, the confession overrides that evidence. People ignore, jurors ignore that evidence," says law professor Richard Leo, who has studied false confessions. "If they were rational, objective, fair-minded police and prosecutors, they would have let everybody else go. But they couldn't admit what was so obvious: [that] they made a mistake, a big mistake. Four people had been interrogated coercively, confessed to a crime they didn't commit, and instead of acknowledging that mistake and these individuals' innocence, they tried to link Omar Ballard to these individuals. They tried to make it a group crime." All four sailors are now out of prison -- one served his sentence, and the other three were granted conditional pardons last summer, after some 11 years in prison. But the men were not exonerated as felons or sex offenders. "I basically built myself a new cell, my bedroom, ... because that's where I'm safe," Derek Tice, another of the Norfolk Four, tells FRONTLINE. "All I did was trade one cell for another." Earlier this summer, Detective Glenn Ford was indicted for extorting money from defendants in exchange for getting them a favorable treatment. He was tried in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and took the stand in his own defense. On Oct. 27, 2010 Ford was found guilty on two of four extortion charges and one charge of lying to the FBI. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 25, 2011."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-confessions/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

Norfolk Four: Virginia; Eric Wilson; Danial Williams; Joseph Dick; Derek Tice: 'The Confessions': Read the PBS introduction and see the entire video of producer Ofra Bikel's Frontline documentary 'The Confessions' broadcast on November 9, 2010. (It's especially relevant in light of the Virginia Governor's decision earlier this week to pardon all four men. HL)

INTRODUCTION TO THE FRONTLINE  DOCUMENTARY 'THE CONFESSIONS" BROADCAST ON NOVEMBER 9, 2010:  Eight men charged. Five confessions. But only one DNA match. Why would four innocent men confess to a brutal crime they didn't commit? In The Confessions, FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel (Innocence Lost, An Ordinary Crime) investigates the conviction of four men -- current and former sailors in the U.S. Navy -- for the rape and murder of a Norfolk, Va., woman in 1997. In the first television interviews with the "Norfolk Four" since their release, Bikel learns of some of the high-pressure police interrogation techniques -- the threat of the death penalty, sleep deprivation, intimidation -- that led each of the men to confess, despite the lack of any evidence linking them to the crime. Twenty-five-year-old Danial Williams, married for 11 days, was the first to be arrested for the rape and murder of Michelle Bosko. He tells FRONTLINE how he came to confess after 11 hours of interrogation: "Being in a small room, and you have a person sitting over across the table from you that's getting in your face, yelling at you, calling you a liar, poking you in the chest with their finger, and then turns around and says, 'Well, I can help you if you tell me the truth,'" Williams explains. "It went on and on and on throughout the night, with them calling me a liar, telling me I needed to tell the truth. And I kept telling them: 'I am telling you the truth. I didn't do it.' I kept telling them over and over. ... I should have stood my ground." Instead, Williams gave the Norfolk police detectives a confession. And when that confession proved inconsistent with the forensic evidence, detectives went back to him for an additional confession that better fit the facts. And Williams, once again, gave it to them. He got a court-appointed lawyer. "No one in Virginia believes that you confess to a murder you didn't commit; no one believes it," says Danny Shipley, Williams' attorney. "And to be quite frank with you, when you approach a case, ... [the death penalty] changes everything. All your decisions that you make are guided by the fact that, if you make the wrong decision, you make the wrong call, your client is dead." Williams' DNA failed to match the DNA at the crime scene, but that didn't save him. Police picked up Williams' roommate, Joe Dick, and began another interrogation. "They started asking me where I was when this happened, and I told them that I was on the ship," Dick said. But Dick's interrogation was conducted by one of Norfolk's most formidable detectives, Robert Glenn Ford, who had a reputation for getting confessions. "Ford's saying I'm lying," Dick tells FRONTLINE. "He's starting to get ticked off. He's raising his voice. He keeps coming back with: 'We know you were there. We can prove you were there. You can get the death penalty.' I kept denying it. We went and did a polygraph. He comes back with the results, and he says I'm still lying, that I failed the polygraph. ... Eventually I'd had enough of him, and I just wanted to tell him anything to get him off my back and to shut him up. I was tired; emotionally, mentally worn down." He gave a confession. Then, confused by police theories and interrogations, Dick started to believe in his own guilt. He implicated another sailor, Eric Wilson, who also confessed. In the end, four men would confess to the rape and murder of Michelle Bosko and another three would be arrested before an eighth man, a convicted rapist named Omar Ballard, was found to be the only DNA match for the Bosko murder. Ballard confessed to the rape and murder of Michelle Bosko, and said that he did it alone -- a statement that fit the forensic facts. But with seven other people already in jail, the police and prosecution refused to change course. Instead, they presented a new theory of the crime in which Ballard met the group outside, and all eight men committed gang rape and murder. From an initial theory of one assailant, namely Danial Williams, the prosecution theory now involved eight, including Ballard. In a recent interview from prison, Ballard tells FRONTLINE that police pressured him to say the other men participated in the crime with him, a statement that he says was not true. "It was made clear from the jump that unless I said somebody else was with me, that it wasn't going to be the truth," Ballard says. "The only truth they wanted to hear [was] that I did it with someone else." "Even when there's other evidence of innocence, the confession overrides that evidence. People ignore, jurors ignore that evidence," says law professor Richard Leo, who has studied false confessions. "If they were rational, objective, fair-minded police and prosecutors, they would have let everybody else go. But they couldn't admit what was so obvious: [that] they made a mistake, a big mistake. Four people had been interrogated coercively, confessed to a crime they didn't commit, and instead of acknowledging that mistake and these individuals' innocence, they tried to link Omar Ballard to these individuals. They tried to make it a group crime." All four sailors are now out of prison -- one served his sentence, and the other three were granted conditional pardons last summer, after some 11 years in prison. But the men were not exonerated as felons or sex offenders. "I basically built myself a new cell, my bedroom, ... because that's where I'm safe," Derek Tice, another of the Norfolk Four, tells FRONTLINE. "All I did was trade one cell for another." Earlier this summer, Detective Glenn Ford was indicted for extorting money from defendants in exchange for getting them a favorable treatment. He was tried in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and took the stand in his own defense. On Oct. 27, 2010 Ford was found guilty on two of four extortion charges and one charge of lying to the FBI. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 25, 2011."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-confessions/

THE VIDEO:

http://www.pbs.org/video/1637166286/

See the Frontline story on the recent pardon: "The pardon brings to a close a 20-year legal battle that brought national attention to the issue of false confessions. The four men were all arrested within a year of 18-year-old Moore-Bosko’s murder, sentenced and kept in prison, despite DNA evidence linking another man to the crime. Danial Williams, Joe Dick Jr., Eric Wilson and Derek Tice have maintained for years that they falsely confessed to the crime following hours of intimidating police interrogations. Williams was the first of the four to be arrested, after a friend of the victim indicated to police that they should take a closer look at him. He was charged with rape and murder less than 24 hours after Moore-Bosko’s body was found. He confessed to the crimes after more than 11 hours of questioning. “It was just unimaginable to myself at that point, but I had confessed,” Williams told FRONTLINE in the 2010 investigation of the case, The Confessions. A detective named Robert Glenn Ford interrogated Williams, and eventually, the other three men. Ford was later found guilty of two counts of extortion and one count of lying to the FBI in separate cases, and sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison. “Ford is a very intimidating person,” Williams said in The Confessions. “He’s not a big person, but he’s like a bulldog. Once he gets his teeth into you, he doesn’t stop until he gets what he wants from you.” Despite lacking any evidence connecting Williams to the crime, the Norfolk police developed a theory that he was one of several men involved. Soon Dick, Wilson and Tice would also be arrested and interrogated, resulting in more confessions they said were coerced under intense pressure. Tice said Ford kept “leaning towards me, yelling at me, calling me a liar, telling me I was going to die.” He asked for a lawyer, but never got to talk to one in the 11 hours before he confessed. When asked why he would confess to a crime he had no part in, Tice recalled how Ford kept telling him he was going to die for lying. “After the nine hours, my thinking was my only options are to tell him a lie, tell him what he wants to hear and live, or keep telling the truth and die.” (Watch the men discuss their interrogations in the below clip from The Confessions, which was written, produced and directed by Ofra Bikel). In 1999, a prison inmate named Omar Ballard admitted in a letter to a friend that he committed the crime. His DNA matched evidence found at the crime scene, and the next year, he pleaded guilty to the rape and murder and admitted to acting alone."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/norfolk-four-pardoned-20-years-after-false-confessions/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

Chris Tapp; Idaho; Post-Register Reporter Bryan Clark provides an excellent perspective on Tapp's dealhat would let him out of prison but leave a murder conviction on his record through an interview with Prof. Steve Drizin (currently representing Brendan Dassey) - and an analogy with The Memphis Three..."In an interview, Tapp said he made his decision because there were just too many “what ifs.” What if the expert testimony didn’t produce enough evidence to prove his innocence? What if they won but prosecutors appealed the case? Would he get out during the appeal or remain in prison? “Is there going to be enough?” Tapp said. “If there’s not then I’m stuck in a box.” And to Drizin, that underlines a major problem with the criminal justice system. “People plead guilty to crimes they did not commit because they lack faith in the ability of our justice system to accept the truth,” Drizin wrote. “It’s a sad commentary on the state of our system; in fact, it is an indictment of our system.” “It’s the worst choice to face as an innocent person,” Baldwin said.

STORY: "Member of West Memphis Three speaks about Tapp deal," by reporter  Bryan Clark, published by The Post-Register on March 23,2017.

GIST: "When professor Steve Drizin learned that Chris Tapp had taken a deal that would let him out of prison but leave a murder conviction on his record, he took to Facebook to share his thoughts. “Make no mistake. It’s a bittersweet day,” he wrote. Drizin is one of the nation’s foremost wrongful conviction attorneys, the former head of the Center on Wrongful Convictions and assistant dean of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. Several of his clients have been exonerated. He currently represents Brendan Dassey, whose conviction was featured in the Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer.” Drizin also investigated the Tapp case, producing a report focusing on evidence of a false confession. “I feel the same way I felt when Damien Echols and the West Memphis Three were released,” Drizin wrote on hearing of the deal. “It’s not a day to celebrate the justice system.” The West Memphis Three were a group of teenagers from West Memphis, Ark., who were convicted of a triple murder in 1994, about three years before Tapp’s conviction. The story of the three teens — Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Echols — was detailed in the three-part HBO documentary series “Paradise Lost.” Prosecutors told the jury that the three teens, misfits in their Bible Belt town with long hair and a taste for heavy metal music, had killed and mutilated three young children in a satanic ritual. Echols was sentenced to death. Baldwin and Misskelley got life in prison.........And for 18 years, the West Memphis Three stayed in prison, even as public pressure for their release mounted and some members of the victims’ families became convinced that the wrong men had been convicted. Then in 2011, new DNA testing was performed that excluded Baldwin, Misskelley and Echols. It instead matched two unidentified men, according to Reuters. Prosecutors came to the West Memphis Three with a deal. All three would take Alford pleas in which they maintain they are factually innocent but do not contest their convictions, and all three could get out of prison. All would give up the right to sue for compensation. All three had to take the deal, or none of them could get it. Baldwin was the most reluctant of the group. He wanted to fight the case until the end. He wanted to fight until his name was clear. “When the Alford plea was offered, I turned it down,” he said. “I thought, ‘It’s not justice for me. It’s not justice for my family. It’s not justice for those little boys that were murdered or their families. They deserve to know the truth.’” Then he began to understand what life was like for Echols on death row. While prison had initially been horrific for him, Baldwin said he had eventually been able to build a meaningful life. He worked in the prison school, helping to educate other prisoners. Most inside had come to believe his protestations of innocence, so he got respect and sympathy instead of beatings. But Echols didn’t have that. He was living in a coffin, Baldwin said, facing execution and watching the men near him make their final walk. Baldwin decided he had to take the deal. The West Memphis Three were never formally exonerated. “It was the worst decision in the world to make,” Baldwin said. “Time was slipping past. Our lives were being taken away from us. Take all of your memories from age 16 to 34 and replace them with prison and brutality.” The West Memphis Three were freed in 2011.........In an interview, Tapp said he made his decision because there were just too many “what ifs.” What if the expert testimony didn’t produce enough evidence to prove his innocence? What if they won but prosecutors appealed the case? Would he get out during the appeal or remain in prison? “Is there going to be enough?” Tapp said. “If there’s not then I’m stuck in a box.” And to Drizin, that underlines a major problem with the criminal justice system. “People plead guilty to crimes they did not commit because they lack faith in the ability of our justice system to accept the truth,” Drizin wrote. “It’s a sad commentary on the state of our system; in fact, it is an indictment of our system.” “It’s the worst choice to face as an innocent person,” Baldwin said."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.postregister.com/articles/chris-tapp-coverage-news-daily-email-todays-headlines/2017/03/23/member-west-memphis-three#

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

Norfolk Four: Virginia; Eric Wilson; Danial Williams; Joseph Dick; Derek Tice: The Virginian-Pilot asks why it took 20 years for justice to be done..."The four were judged guilty partially based on confessions they say were coerced by a Norfolk detective later found guilty of corruption in another case. It was one of the nation’s most infamous cases of wrongful convictions, and a textbook example of political and professional cowardice and misconduct. That the proper conclusion was reached only 20 years after the crime was committed raises unshakable questions about America’s justice system. It should also remind every American about the power of tenacious journalists and advocates — at this newspaper and all over the country — to correct egregious misdeeds, even if it takes time."

EDITORIAL: "After 20 years, justice for the Norfolk four,"  published by the Virginian-Pilot on March 22, 2017.

GIST: Four Norfolk men, all Navy veterans, served years in prison for a 1997 murder they didn’t commit. It’s a wrong Virginia can never fully right, but a pardon issued this week by Gov. Terry McAuliffe takes another step in the proper direction — one overdue from the commonwealth. The four were judged guilty partially based on confessions they say were coerced by a Norfolk detective later found guilty of corruption in another case. It was one of the nation’s most infamous cases of wrongful convictions, and a textbook example of political and professional cowardice and misconduct. That the proper conclusion was reached only 20 years after the crime was committed raises unshakable questions about America’s justice system. It should also remind every American about the power of tenacious journalists and advocates — at this newspaper and all over the country — to correct egregious misdeeds, even if it takes time. Here’s the story, drawn from a 2015 narrative by Pilot reporter Gary Harki on Hampton Roads’ 10 most infamous crimes, on the occasion of The Pilot’s 150th anniversary: “In 1997, 19-year-old Billy Bosko found his 18-year-old bride, Michelle Moore-Bosko, murdered in their Norfolk apartment. She had been raped, stabbed and strangled. “Police arrested eight men in the months that followed Moore-Bosko’s death. Charges against three were withdrawn. The other five were convicted — but four of them later maintained their innocence, insisting police had coerced their confessions. “The fifth man, Omar Ballard, later said he committed the crime alone; his DNA provided the only match to biological evidence. “Eric C. Wilson, a former Navy sailor, served nearly nine years in prison on a rape conviction. Danial Williams, Joseph Dick and Derek Tice were convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to life in prison.” The four “appealed their convictions, arguing that Norfolk police detective Robert Glenn Ford forced false confessions from them. In 2009, Gov. Tim Kaine granted partial pardons to Tice, Williams and Dick and released them from their life sentences. Wilson already was free.” As awful as it was that four men had spent their young adulthood suffering the horrors of prison for a crime they didn’t do, it’s worse to know it was the result of an unthinkable transgression. “In an unrelated case,” Harki wrote, “Ford was [sentenced] in February 2011 [for] taking money from drug dealers and other criminals in exchange for getting them favorable treatment in the court system. Ford told prosecutors and judges that those individuals had helped to solve murders, but several of them testified that they didn’t help Ford.” Ford was sentenced to 12½ years in prison, and his conduct while employed by the city has colored numerous convictions aside from those of the “Norfolk Four.” It is a stain, ugly and indelible, on the city’s criminal justice system. After “Kaine had stopped short of clearing their names,” The Washington Post reported Wednesday, “... 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.” That federal judge was involved because the Virginia Supreme Court had rejected appeals from three of the men. A fourth had his conviction erased in federal court. Mark that: It took the intervention of federal judges to ensure that justice was served in Virginia. That casts doubt about the quality of the commonwealth’s legal system and its willingness to correct itself. McAuliffe’s pardon was welcomed by the Norfolk Four in a statement released Tuesday. “I speak for all four of us in expressing our deepest thanks to Gov. McAuliffe, who has given us our lives back with these full pardons,” Wilson wrote, according to The Post."

The entire  editorial can be found at:

http://pilotonline.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-after-years-justice-for-the-norfolk-four/article_890f658f-2cc7-5939-9643-076bc5a7bc16.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;

Danial Williams, Joseph Dick; Derek Tice; Eric Wilson (The Norfolk 4): False confession case; Significant Development: (White Elephant Case); Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe pardons 'Norfolk 4' sailors in 1997 rape and killing, saying police intimidated them into falsely confessing to the crimes. FOX News. March 21, 2017..."Attorneys for the men argued absolute pardons from the governor carried greater weight than court rulings and were essential to helping the men rebuild their lives and reputations. They had long said they confessed only after being intimidated by police. Williams, who lived in the same apartment building as Moore-Bosko, has said he was told he would face a capital murder charge — punishable by death — if he didn't confess. He said he caved because he wanted the 11-hour interrogation to be over. "I just couldn't take it anymore," Williams said during an April 2015 hearing. "I couldn't take being called a liar, the pressure." Dick also has said he was threatened with the death penalty. The detective who questioned the men, Robert Glenn Ford, was convicted in 2011 of extortion and lying to the FBI in unrelated cases. He is serving 12 ½ years in prison for taking tens of thousands of dollars from drug dealers in exchange for getting them favorable treatment at sentencing."

 

In the years since I started publishing this Blog I have become increasingly disturbed by the 'white elephant' in the room: Sheer, unadulterated, willful   misconduct in the criminal justice system - much  of it involving forensic evidence - committed by lab technicians,  pathologists, police officers, prosecutors and others.  Think Annie Dookhan; Think Sonia Farak; Think David Kofoed; Think Charles Smith; Think Ken Anderson; Think Gene Morrison.  I have therefore decided to run this image of a white elephant at the top of every applicable post henceforth, to draw our reader's attention to   what I see as a major problem in all too many criminal justice system's - my own included.  Harold Levy; Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
"Reformers have for years recommended that all forensic labs be independent from law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies' and this is a key reform promoted by The Justice Project (2008). But fixing these problems is only half the answer' because half of the wrongful convictions attributed to misleading forensic evidence involved deliberate forensic fraud' evidence tampering' and/or perjury.
From "The Elephant in the Crime Lab," by co-authored by Sheila Berry and Larry Ytuarte; Forensic Examiner; Spring, 2009; http://www.t-mlaw.com/blog/post/the-elephant-in-the-crime-lab/

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"Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has approved pardons for the four former sailors who became known as the "Norfolk Four" in a 1997 rape and killing, saying police intimidated them into falsely confessing to the crimes. "These pardons close the final chapter on a grave injustice that has plagued these 4 men for nearly 20 years," spokesman Brian Coy told Fox News Tuesday. DNA evidence matched a fifth man, Omar Ballard, to the crimes against Michelle Moore-Bosko. He confessed to being the only one responsible. Three of the men — Danial Williams, Joseph Dick and Derek Tice — were granted conditional pardons in 2009 by then-Gov. Tim Kaine and released from prison because of doubts about their guilt, but their convictions remained on the books. The fourth man, Eric Wilson, who was convicted only of rape, had already been released. Wilson failed to get his conviction overturned in court because he had already completed his sentence when he brought the challenge. Because Wilson is a convicted rapist, he was forced to register as a sex offender and barred from adopting his stepson. A federal judge vacated Williams and Dick's convictions in October, declaring that "no sane human being" could find them guilty. Tice had his convictions erased in 2009. Attorneys for the men argued absolute pardons from the governor carried greater weight than court rulings and were essential to helping the men rebuild their lives and reputations. They had long said they confessed only after being intimidated by police. Williams, who lived in the same apartment building as Moore-Bosko, has said he was told he would face a capital murder charge — punishable by death — if he didn't confess. He said he caved because he wanted the 11-hour interrogation to be over. "I just couldn't take it anymore," Williams said during an April 2015 hearing. "I couldn't take being called a liar, the pressure." Dick also has said he was threatened with the death penalty. The detective who questioned the men, Robert Glenn Ford, was convicted in 2011 of extortion and lying to the FBI in unrelated cases. He is serving 12 ½ years in prison for taking tens of thousands of dollars from drug dealers in exchange for getting them favorable treatment at sentencing.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/21/virginia-governor-pardons-norfolk-4-sailors-in-1997-rape-and-killing-michelle-moore-bosko.html

Chris Tapp: Idaho; Free at last; Reaction; (Part 1): Bulletin: False confession case; Local News 8 reports that: "Many people had the chance to hold Tapp for the first time in 20 years. Some even had to reintroduce themselves to him because it had been so long." Reporter Pheben Kassahun; Local News 8; March 22, 2017.

"It was an emotional day for those who know Christopher Tapp personally. A father and son said Tapp was at their house around the night he was accused of the murder of Angie Dodge. "We love him. We've missed him. Glad to see him," Mike Hope said. People with tears of joy gathered on the front lawn of the Bonneville County Court House, on Wednesday. He was greeted with open arms and kisses from everyone. Many people had the chance to hold Tapp for the first time in 20 years. Some even had to reintroduce themselves to him because it had been so long. That is exactly what happened when Tapp saw Mike and Jason Hope. Mike Hope said the night Tapp was accused of Angie Dodge's murder, Tapp was actually at Mike's house. He tried to convince police but he had no luck. "He used to come over to our house and play computer games all the time. We was pretty sure that, that night that he was accused of this, we thought he was at our house playing games, so I donated the hard drive on my computer to see if his name was on there for high scores," Mike Hope said. He said he does not know if officials ever found Tapp's name on the high score list."
http://www.localnews8.com/news/father-and-son-say-christopher-tapp-was-at-their-house-the-night-angie-dodge-was-murdered/409405069