On August 6, 2009, Governor Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia granted conditional pardons to the Navy veterans known as the “Norfolk Four” but fell short of granting them absolute pardons based on innocence. Gov. Kaine denied the clemency request of Eric C. Wilson, the fourth member of the group, who was released in 2005 after serving 8 ½ years in prison.Just over a month later, Tice received even more complete relief when a federal judge granted his petition for habeas corpus, setting the stage for his conviction to be officially vacated."

While we are glad that Joe, Derek and Danial will finally be coming home to their families," said Tice’s attorney Desmond Hogan, "we are gravely disappointed that Governor Kaine has disregarded the overwhelming evidence of innocence, which proves only one man was responsible for this tragic crime."

Teams of lawyers at three national law firms have been representing Williams, Tice and Dick, who were serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole, on a pro bono basis for the past five years. The law firm teams were led by two MAIP Board Members, Donald Salzman of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Hogan of Hogan & Hartson, representing Williams and Tice, respectively and by George Kendall, who at the time was working at Holland & Knight on behalf of Dick.

On September 14, US District Judge Richard Williams vacated Tice’s conviction on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. In his ruling, Judge Williams agreed with Tice’s attorneys that if Tice’s trial attorney had moved to suppress his confession, which the court found was obtained despite Tice’s invocation of his right to silence, “there is a reasonable probability that Tice would not have been convicted," and “the prosecution’s case against Tice [is] awash in doubt, Williams wrote. Under the term of the conditional pardon, the convictions still stand for Williams and Dick.

The four Navy men were wrongfully convicted based on false confessions extracted after they were subjected to high-pressure interrogation tactics, including threats of the death penalty and questionable use of lie detector tests.  The details in the men’s confessions did not match the crime scene, the other confessions, or the confession of the real killer.

All of the DNA and forensic evidence in the Norfolk Four case pointed to one man, Omar Ballard, and only his confession matched the physical evidence. Ballard is now serving a life sentence for the crime and has sworn under oath that he committed the crime by himself.

With Tice, Dick and Williams on their way home, their families took immediate steps to help them reintegrate into their communities. The men have been meeting with social workers and job counselors to help them make the adjustment, but they have a tough road ahead of them because convictions remain on their record for a crime they did not commit.

"Though we are overjoyed to finally have our sons back, we are saddened that Governor Kaine failed to recognize their actual innocence," said Larry Tice. "Our sons lost more than a decade of their lives. We must make sure that a tragedy like this one never strikes another family.”

Because false confessions are such a common cause of wrongful convictions, MAIP advocates for reforms that can reduce the risk of such confessions.  These reforms include legislation mandating the electronic recording of interrogations in their entirety and training for police officers on proper interrogation tactics.

“This case – and the frequency of false confessions in criminal cases – shows that common sense reforms like the videotaping of interrogations are needed to protect the innocent and our communities,” said MAIP Executive Director Shawn Armbrust. “We must work to ensure that no other innocent people suffer as the Norfolk Four did.”

In 1991, 38-year-old Linda Mae Pellicano was found stabbed and raped in her Chesapeake Beach, MD home.  Anthony Gray was arrested, and authorities told him that two other men who had been arrested had implicated him, in order to make him confess.  Gray, who has a below-average IQ, did confess, and eventually pleaded guilty to first degree murder and first degree rape, believing that it would allow him to avoid the death penalty.  He was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences, while the other two men were not found guilty.

Five years later, in 1997, police arrested a man named Anthony Fleming for breaking and entering.  Hoping for a plea deal in that case, Fleming talked to police about details of the Pellicano murder that were never publicized, which aroused suspicion that he had been involved. DNA testing of the semen from the crime scene confirmed a match with Fleming, who then pled guilty to the 1991 rape and murder.  He was sentenced to life in prison.

After Fleming was arrested, Calvert County State's Attorney Robert Riddle, who had long expressed doubts about Gray’s innocence, spent fifteen months making sure that Gray could not have been an accomplice. Anthony Gray remained in prison during this time until February 8, 1999, when he walked out of the Calvert County, Md. courthouse a free man.

Like most exonerees, Gray has sought out compensation from the government, but according to a Maryland statute, the Board of Public Works cannot award any money unless the wrongfully convicted person first receives a pardon from the governor.  Gray has not yet been pardoned, so he has yet to receive compensation for his eight years spent in prison.

In July 1982, a 47-year-old schoolteacher came home to her Towson apartment in the middle of the afternoon.  She heard a rustling in her closet, and when she walked into her bedroom, a black man jumped out and attacked her.  The victim told the jury that the man put what he said was a gun to her back, covered her head with a bathrobe, forced her onto the bed, and raped her.

Bernard Webster, who was nineteen at the time, became a suspect because the Baltimore County police had arrested him months earlier for stealing a purse.  Other residents of the victim’s apartment complex then picked him out of a photo lineup as a man they’d seen around the complex that day.  The victim picked him out of a photo lineup as the man who attacked her.  Though the defense presented two witnesses who told the jury that they’d seen Webster playing basketball that day, miles away from the crime scene, and despite questionable forensics declaring that Webster’s blood matched the blood found on the bedspread (this contradicted an earlier report), Webster was found guilty in 1983 and sentenced to thirty years in prison.

From prison, Webster continued contacting the Maryland public defender office, but there was little the attorneys could do for him until the advent of DNA testing.  Finally, in 2000, the office took on his case to help him prove his innocence, and in 2001, Webster filed his own petition for DNA testing.  That year, a new law was enacted in Maryland, allowing judges to order DNA testing for people serving sentences for rape or murder when testing could prove their innocence.  Though the Baltimore County state’s attorney’s office asked the court to deny the motion, Judge Christian Kahl allowed the testing to go forward.

Testing was performed on three slides found at the hospital where the victim was treated twenty years prior.  The results excluded Webster as the contributor of the spermatozoa, and in November 2002, his sentence was vacated.  Bernard Webster was 40 years old when he left prison, becoming the 3rd person in Maryland and the 115th nationwide to have his conviction overturned by DNA evidence.

After exoneration, Webster was awarded $900,000 in compensation – $45,000 for each year he wrongfully spent in prison.

On June 28th, 1971, Charles Erdman was murdered inside a Glen Burnie, Maryland 7-Eleven on Crain Highway after attempting to stop a robbery that was in progress by two masked men. The main witness against Marsh at trial was Linda Packech, a heroin addict with a lengthy criminal record. She claimed to have seen Marsh come out of the 7-Eleven and raise his mask. Her testimony was the primary evidence used to convict Marsh. He was sentenced to life-plus-ten years in prison.

In 1987 though, Packech admitted that she had lied during the trial. She eventually told both a reporter and the prosecutor that she had been pressured to identify Marsh by a Anne Arundel County police detective who was convinced he was guilty, but was unable to find any evidence implicating Marsh after an 18-month investigation. In actuality, Packech was in jail on shoplifting charges at the time of the crime and could not have been present at the murder scene. Marsh’s original conviction was overturned and prosecutor’s decided not to retry him, making him a free man. Packech was eventually convicted of perjury for her testimony during Marsh’s trial.  

In 2005, Marsh (along with several other exonerees) attended the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project’s National Innocence Network Conference, where experts and advocates convened to discuss recent developments in the fight to exonerate the wrongfully convicted.

Because technically, prosecutors never acknowledged Marsh's absolute innocence, he has been unable to receive a full pardon and has thus been ineligible for compensation, despite the misconduct that went into his wrongful conviction. Marsh has spent much of the past twenty years as a truck driver in Maryland.

James Lee Woodard was originally released from prison in April 2008 after a DNA-retesting program run by the new Dallas District Attorney cleared him of the 1980 murder of  Beverly Ann Jones. He had spent 27 years behind bars for a crime he consistently denied doing. DNA testing was unavailable at the time of the crime. On Wednesday, the Governor officially cleared his name.

"James Lee Woodard was wrongfully convicted for a crime he did not commit," Perry said. "My action today cannot give back the time he spent in prison, but it does end this miscarriage of justice."

Woodard's DNA was tested in large part thanks to Craig Watkins, who was inaugurated as Dallas' first African-American District Attorney in 2007. Watkins set up the nation's first DA-run Conviction Integrity Unit, and dedicated much of his staff's resources to reexamining convictions won by notorious former DA Henry Wade. The CIU has reviewed DNA of hundreds of people convicted in Dallas who think DNA testing can clear their name.

Woodard was convicted based on the testimony of two witnesses who said they saw him with Jones the night of her murder. One of the witnesses was Jones' stepfather who later recanted his testimony. A neighbor also testified seeing them together that night, though from a distance while it was dark out.

Watkins and IPOT later discovered that Jones was with three other men at various points in the night. Wade and other Dallas Prosecutors allegedly knew about this but did not disclose it to Woodard's attorneys or the judge. Two of those three men have sexual assault convictions on their records.

In April 2008, a few months after submitting his DNA for testing, Woodard was visited in prison by his attorneys from the Innocence Proejct of Texas, who told him that his DNA excluded him as the rapist. The next day, thanks to the DNA exclusion combined with the newly found evidence, Judge Mark Stoltz agreed to let Woodard walk out of the courthouse a free man.

Mr. Woodard was represented by IPOT Chief Counsel Jeff Blackburn and Jason Partney on his pardon application, which was unanimously supported by The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The pardon makes Woodard eligible to receive state compensation for his wrongful conviction. Because he was incarcerated for longer than anyone ever exonerated by DNA evidence, many experts expect Woodard to receive a record $4 million or more in compensation.

Woodard is one of 20 Dallas County men who have had their convictions overturned under the CIU program. The Dallas District Attorney's Office and the Innocence Project of Texas are still working on over 200 old cases of people who hope their DNA will prove their wrongful conviction and clear their names.

Click here to watch a 60 Minutes report about Woodard's case and the CIU that aired the week Woodard was originally released from prison.

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams vacated Tice's conviction for the 1997 rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko, on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. In doing so, Judge Williams granted the habeas corpus petition filed by Tice's attorneys, including MAIP Board Member Des Hogan.

Tice was released from prison in August along with Danial Williams and Joseph Dick after VA Gov. Timothy Kaine granted the men a conditional pardon . While the pardon released the men from prison, it did not establish their innocence for the crimes.

The men confessed to the crimes during high-pressure interrogations. In the brief, Tice's attorneys argued that his trial attorney should have tried to keep jurors from hearing his confession on the grounds that police continued to question him after he had invoked his right to remain silent. The federal judge agreed with that statement.

"Had counsel pursued such a motion, there is a reasonable probability that Tice would not have been convicted," Williams wrote. 

A fifth man, Omar Ballard, has confessed to the crimes and is currently incarcerated for killing Moore-Bosko.  All of the DNA and forensic evidence from the crime scene match him, his confession is the only one that accurately describes the crime scene and he has continually said that he acted alone in the crime.

Tice told the Associated Press that he was "flabbergasted" by the news and that "hopefully this is one more step to get my life back, and get back to where I was before all this happened." He added that he will continue to fight to help Dick, Williams and Eric Wilson, completely clear their names of the crime.

To read the Judge's ruling that exonerated Derek Tice, click here.

After spending more than 11 harsh years in prison for a crime they did not commit, Joseph J. Dick, Jr., Derek E. Tice, and Danial J. Williams, became free men Thursday.  Governor Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia granted conditional pardons to the Navy veterans but fell short of granting absolute pardons based on innocence. A fourth innocent sailor, Eric C. Wilson, was released in 2005 after serving 8 ½ years in prison. His clemency request was denied today by Governor Kaine.

“While we are pleased that Governor Kaine has finally taken the necessary action to correct this grave miscarriage of justice, we are very disappointed that he failed to recognize that the Norfolk Four are completely innocent of this crime,” said Shawn Armbrust, Executive Director of Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP), a non-profit organization dedicated to correcting and preventing wrongful convictions in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Two MAIP Board Members, Donald Salzman of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Desmond Hogan of Hogan & Hartson, provided pro bono representation to Williams and Tice, respectively.  Dick was represented by George Kendall of Holland & Knight.

“Governor Kaine gave the Norfolk Four their lives back,” said Ms. Armbrust, “but we are saddened for them that these terrible crimes will continue to hang over their heads.”

The four Navy men were wrongfully convicted based on false confessions extracted after they were subjected to high-pressure interrogation tactics, including threats of the death penalty and questionable use of lie detector tests.  The details in the men’s confessions did not match the crime scene, the other confessions, or the confession of the real killer.  False confessions have played a role in approximately 25 percent of all 241 cases nationwide in which convicted defendants have been conclusively exonerated by DNA.

“In this case, as with most false confession cases, the devil is in the details,” said Ms. Armbrust.  “And these details help prove that the Norfolk Four knew absolutely nothing about this crime.”

Because false confessions are such a common cause of wrongful convictions, MAIP advocates for reforms that can reduce the risk of such confessions.  These reforms include legislation mandating the electronic recording of interrogations in their entirety and training for police officers on proper interrogation tactics.

Citing the Norfolk Four case in part, in 2006, the Norfolk Police Department independently adopted the practice of videotaping custodial interrogations.  Five hundred other jurisdictions nationwide have done the same.  Sixteen states currently require the electronic recording of interrogations in some cases.

“This case – and the frequency of false confessions in criminal cases – shows that common sense reforms like the videotaping of interrogations are needed to protect the innocent and our communities,” said Ms. Armbrust. 

All of the DNA and forensic evidence in the Norfolk Four case pointed to one man, Omar Ballard, and only his confession matched the physical evidence. Ballard is now serving a life sentence for the crime.

"While we are glad that Joe, Derek and Danial will finally be coming home to their families," Hogan said. "We are gravely disappointed that Governor Kaine has disregarded the overwhelming of innocence, which proves only one man was responsible for this tragic crime."

With Tice, Dick and Williams on their way home, their family are taken immediate steps to help them reintegrate into their communities. The men will soon meet with social workers and job counselors to help them make the adjustment. 

"Though we are overjoyed to finally have our sons back, we are saddened that Governor Kaine failed to recognize their actual innocence," said Larry Tice. "Our sons lost more than a decade of their lives. We must make sure that a tragedy like this one never strikes another family. We are looking forward to spending time with our sons and will continue to work to prove their innocence so this tragic mistake can finally be corrected."

Armbrust hopes this case has demonstrated the need for legislation that changes the way evidence is collected.

 “Now is the time to take stock of the policies and procedures that contribute to wrongful convictions and enact reforms to ensure that only reliable evidence makes it into the courtroom,” said Ms. Armbrust. “We must work to ensure that no other innocent people suffer as the Norfolk Four did.”

The boy, whose name is sealed, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor when he began a relationship with the fifteen-year old daughter of the man with whom he was living.

The boy, who was orphaned in Ghana when he was eight, was deserted by his aunt last year when she left Ghana for Germany. Left without a home or money, he was lured to the United States by a man promising a home, an education, and help obtaining a visa. However, when he arrived at the man's Virginia home, the teenager was forced into a long period of involuntary servitude. The boy tried to leave his captivity, but was told he would be deported back to Ghana if he fled.

After the teenager's relationship with the young girl was reported to police, they came to the house and arrested the boy. The girl's father provided police with forged documents that suggested he was 21, and the boy was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. To be convicted of that crime, it is necessary to be 18 years old. The boy really was 17 at the time, which he told both police and his attorney. However, he was unable to prove his age and, at the suggestion of his attorney, plead guilty to the crime.

After spending a couple of months in prison, the boy found legal help from the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. LAF Chicago contacted the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project requesting help finding pro-bono legal representation in Virginia. MAIP recruited attorneys from Jones Day to help take on his case. LAF Chicago helped the boy obtain official records of entry from the U.S. government, a replacement birth certificate, and a copy of his original passport.

Jones Day used those documents in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court of Prince William County to file a write of error coram vobis, which is designed to correct errors of fact that affect that validity of a judgment. Although the Commonwealth of Virginia opposed the position, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court granted the coram vobis petition and vacated the boy's conviction. He was released on July 30.

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project wishes the young man the best of luck and congratulates the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago and the Jones Day attorneys on a job well done.

Stinson was first released from prison in January, when Judge Patricia McMahon vacated his sentence. However, McMahon gave prosecutors six months to retry him for the murder of Ione Cychosz. However, thanks to the work done by the attorneys at the Wisconsin Innocence Project, prosecutors decided not to pursue a new trial. 

When he was first arrested and charged, police targeted Stinson because Cychosz was his neighbor, and bite marks on her body indicated that her assailant was missing a tooth. Stinson had this characteristic and after an expert testified that his teeth were a match, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

It was those same bite marks that helped the attorneys at the Wisconsin Innocence Project clear his name. Four dental experts using technology unavailable in 1984 agreed that the bite marks could not be Stinson's. In addition, Stinson's DNA was compared to saliva found on Cyshosz's sweater. While analysts confirmed that the saliva came from a male, they agreed that Stinson was not a match.

Given the overwhelming evidence in his favor, the Milwaukee County Prosecutor's Office agreed to release him, though they have not been willing to acknowledge Stinson's innocence.

Stinson and his family celebrated his official freedom six months after he left the prison walls. 

"I feel wonderful right now," Stinson told The Associated Press. "I can't express it in words. It hasn't really sunk in yet."

Stinson becomes the 241st person exonerated due to DNA testing.

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project joins the rest of the Innocence movement in celebrating Stinson's exoneration and wishing him well in his life as a free man. MAIP also congratulates its colleagues in the Wisconsin Innocence Project on a job well done.

"The agreement … is not perfect," Howard said in a written statement. "It is not perfect because, although it allows me to maintain my innocence, it requires me to accept a conviction for a crime I did not commit. That is not something I have done lightly, especially with all the evidence of my innocence that now exists. But I feel like I have little choice, because after 20 years in prison, the agreement gives me my freedom immediately." 

Mr. Howard was represented by D.C. criminal defense attorney Zack Rosenburg, who was appointed by the court, and by partner Seth Rosenthal and his team at the law firm of Venable LLP.  Rosenthal entered the case after Rosenburg asked the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project for assistance. By referring the case to Rosenthal, the Project ensured that Howard would have the resources needed to fully investigate a 20-year-old crime. “By connecting me with Seth, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project played a vital role in securing Mike’s freedom," Rosenburg said. "It is exceedingly difficult to build the kind of case we built for Howard without the help of a firm like Venable, which has proven itself to be a role model for others."

Click on the following links to read the joint MAIP/Venable press release issued August 7, 2008; a written statement by Mr. Howard and to see a picture of Mr. Howard with his legal team.  We have also posted a fact sheet outlining the evidence of Mr. Howard's innocence and the Amended Motion to Vacate and supporting Memorandum of Law filed in D.C. Superior Court by Mr. Howard's legal team. 

An in-depth story about the case appeared in Washington's Legal Times.  The story was also covered by the Washington Times.  You can read that article here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/18/innocence-project-wins-again/.

The story appeared on Fox 5 News and on NBC4 news at 11:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 7.  You can see the clips here:  Fox 5 video and NBC 4 video.

NBC 4 also covered the story on its web site.  You can read their story, along with comments from the community, here: http://www.nbc4.com/news/17121996/detail.html.