False Confessions

Would you confess to a crime you didn't commit?

I watched a short film today in my Psychology and Criminal Justice class which really disturbed and annoyed me because of what transpired in it. It was a documentary on an actual criminal case in Norfolk, where four men separately confessed to a gang rape and murder which they didn't commit and were convicted to life sentence in prison without parole. How did it all happen?  Read on for the ridiculous story.



The Story

The victim in the story is Michelle Bosko - she was found dead in her apartment by her husband who had just came home from a military assignment. Police were called in and they ruled it as a rape/murder. The lead detective then asked the husband who was 'the most likely person who would have done this', and he arrowed his neighbour, Danial Williams.

Danial Williams was brought in for what he thought was a routine questioning - 'Did you notice anything suspicious', etc etc. However, it turned out to be multiple hours of harsh interrogation by a detective named Ford, during which Ford kept yelling in Williams' face and accusing him of being a liar and asking him to own up. Williams was even made to take a polygraph test, which he passed, BUT he was told he failed and Ford kept pressing him to own up to the crime.

In the documentary, Williams told the camera that he was absolutely innocent, and he was just getting worn out and tired and exhausted, and it was apparent that Ford didn't want the truth, he just wanted to hear a confession that matched his own theory. After eight long hours of this interrogation, Williams finally 'broke', and gave a 'confession'. He admitted that he raped Michelle Bosko and described the whole sequence of events in which he hit her with a shoe several times to keep her down and had intercourse with her.

HOWEVER, his confession was a total contradiction with the evidence. Bosko had multiple stab wounds with no apparent injuries from being hit by a hard object. She was also clearly strangled. Plus, a DNA test showed that Williams DNA did NOT match the semen found on Bosko. In spite of all this, instead of releasing Williams, the detective Ford actually further pressed/interrogated Williams getting him to modify his confession to fit the evidence. After another few hours of harsh interrogation Williams changed his story again to fit what Ford wanted.

Then Williams' roommate, Joseph Dick was somehow hauled in to be interrogated as well, as Ford believed it was a group effort and not a single suspect since the DNA did not match Williams. Dick was subject to the same 8-10 hours of harsh interrogation, with Ford constantly yelling at him and accusing him of being a liar and saying he would be getting the death penalty if he did not confess. Eventually, Dick 'broke' as well, and confessed to being a co-conspirator of the crime with Williams, and they had raped and murdered Michelle Bosko together.

However, after Dick's DNA was tested as well, the police found that it wasn't his dick that was in Michelle too! (har har. I had to make that pun somewhere.) Their new theory - there had to be more than two people.

Ford went back to interrogating Dick and told him to give up the names of his accomplices. After some more coercion, Dick came up with another name: Eric Wilson. Apparently this guy wasn't even in the same state at the time of the murder but couldn't prove it, so when he was hauled down for interrogation as well, the same procedure was repeated - 10 hours of harsh interrogation and accusations of him being a liar and asking him to confess or else he would be 'given the needle'.  He eventually 'confessed' too, according to what Ford wanted.

In an interview in the documentary, Wilson elaborated that Ford had asked leading questions like "Then the three of you forced your way in and held her down right? That's what you did right?" and basically painted out the scene according to what Ford's theory was and wanted Wilson to confess to it.

However, DNA tests once again didn't match! The police went back to Dick, and said that they 'knew that there were at least four people now, since none of the DNA had matched yet' and pressed him to 'give up his accomplice'. Dick obligated, and named a fourth person 'George', but the person he identified from some navy photographs was actually Derek Tice.

Derek Tice, yet another innocent person, was hauled in for the same interrogation process by Ford, and he eventually 'cracked' too and 'confessed to' the gang rape/murder. Ford now had this theory that there were more people so he kept pressing for more names, believing there were more involved (as, yes, Tice's DNA did not match).

Tice named not one, but THREE other men who were supposedly in the gangrape now. Yes, a total of 7 men allegedly entered the house of Michelle Bosko and took turns to stab her and rape her. I must note at this point that none of the physical evidence agreed with this proposed theory of the police - there was no sign of forced entry, there was no sign of struggle in the house by a group of people, and none of their DNA matched the semen in Michelle Bosko.

Those three men somehow escaped being convicted because they had airtight alibis.

So eventually the four original men - Williams, Dick, Wilson and Tice had their trials, in which despite all the contradicting evidence, lack of physical evidence to implicate them, and alibis and all, because of their original 'confessions', were found GUILTY of gangrape and murder by the jury. And they were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

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The Epilogue

A few years later, a woman who had been corresponding with Omar Ballard, who had a long criminal record and was serving time for an unrelated offense, gave the police a threatening letter Ballard had given her. In the letter, Ballard confessed to the murder/rape of Michelle Bosko - all by himself. Ballard's DNA was tested ... AND IT MATCHED the DNA found in Michelle Bosko! We got ourselves a rapist/killer!

You would think that the previous four men would then be exonerated and released. Noooo. The police incorporated Ballard into their grand theory of what happened - All 5 men were involved in the gangrape, and the men were afraid of Ballard so did not name him, and Ballard did not implicate them because he didn't want to be labelled a snitch. -_-

Today, the men have served over 10 years or something of their sentences, and I believe all have been released from prison.

For the Wikipedia entry on this, check out The Norfolk Four.

 

My Thoughts

This whole story was so ridiculous. The stupidity and tunnel-vision of the police made me cringe in my seat as each person 'confessed' to the crime that they never committed. You may ask yourself WHY these people would confess to something they didn't do - the Norfolk Four said that under the harsh conditions, with deprived sleep, hunger, fatigue (apparently they were kept up for 24 hours, with 10 hours being the actual interrogation), and clear stubbornness of Ford the detective, they had no other option. Plus he kept threatening them with the death penalty if they didn't confess.

Well, it has been shown that young children can be misled into describing sex acts that never occurred. But that is because they are highly suggestible. So I suppose a deprived person is highly suggestible too, and will do anything to get out of that deprived state. That's scary.

I want to experience it. The harsh interrogation, the depravity (is this the correct form of the word?). Just so in case in the future, if some dumbass cop tries to force a confession out of me for something I did not do, I will be prepared.