Va. governor pardons 3 in rape-slaying

August 07, 2009|Associated Press

RICHMOND - Virginia Governor Tim Kaine yesterday 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 8 1/2 years in prison for raping 18-year-old Michelle Moore-Bosko but was acquitted of her murder.

He granted conditional pardons to three others, Derek Tice, Danial Williams, and Joseph Dick Jr., who along with Wilson were known as the “Norfolk Four.’’ The pardoned men will spend no more time in prison.

Kaine said he decided there were “grave doubts about at least the level of their complicity in the crime.’’ The men all said their confessions were coerced.

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

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