Ex-FBI agents urge clemency for Norf. 4

RICHMOND, Va. - A group of retired FBI agents is urging Gov. Timothy Kaine to pardon four former sailors for the 1997 rape and murder of another sailor's wife.

The four sailors confessed and were convicted.

The sailors' defense attorneys recently asked the former agents to review the case file and the agents say they have collectively come to the opinion that the Norfolk homicide investigators on the case coerced the sailors into giving false confessions.

Michelle Moore Bosco, 18,  was found in a pool of blood in her Ocean View apartment on July 8, 1997, by her sailor husband who had just returned home from deployment.

Four sailors, Danial Williams, Joseph J. Dick, Jr., Derek Tice and Eric Wilson all confessed to the crime.  Williams, Dick and Tice are all serving sentences of life in prison without parole.  Wilson served more than eight years in prison for rape and was then released.

The retired FBI agents, who are not connected to the case at all, say they reviewed the case file at the request of the sailors' attorneys.

"They stand falsely convicted for a crime they did not commit.  The evidence shows one person sexually assualted and murdered the victim," said former FBI agent Jay Cochran during a news conference in Richmond Monday morning.

Omar Ballard, also in prison,  has previously confessed to the crime, changing his story from the group attack in the beginning to later claiming he acted alone.

WAVY.com asked the former agents to explain why Joseph Dick and Derek Tice both, many months after those police interrogations, would take the witness stand in court and again both confess to committing the gruesome crime and even apologize to the family.

"Can you explain why months after those police interrogations an innocent person would stand up in court and do that?" asked WAVY.com reporter Mary Kay Mallonee.

"No," responded Cochran.  " I also can't explain why an innocent person would give a false confession either."

Derrick Tice's parents attended Monday's news conference with the retired agents and the defense attorneys.

"It's a nightmare I wish I could wake up from," said Larry Tice. " I wouldn't wish this on anyone."

This case has gone to the Virginia Supreme Court and the sailors' convictions were all upheld.

The defense attorneys filed a petition for clemency in 2005 with then Governor Mark Warner.  Warner did not grant clemency for the men.  The petition has since remained with Governor Timothy Kaine's office.  In the nearly three years Governor Kaine has had the request, he has not granted pardons for the men.