I
recently watched the documentary The
Confessions on frontline.org. This is a criminal justice documentary that
is based on the murder of a navy sailor William Bosko’s wife. Four men confessed to committing the crime
but none of them actually committed the murder. This documentary interviews the
four men, Daniel Williams, Joe Dick, Eric Wilson and Derek Tice. We get to hear
their side of the story and we learn why they confessed to a murder that they
did not commit. Three other men were also charged with participating in the
murder however their charges were later dropped.
The
documentary gives us an insight as to what happens during an interrogation.
Tamika Taylor, a friend of the victim, told detectives to look into Daniel
Williams because he seemed “obsessed” with the murder. Ford, a fierce
“pit-bull-like” detective, interrogated Williams for eleven hours. After eleven
hours, Williams gave a false confession that was very inconsistent. When DNA
results came back four months later and showed that he was not a match, the
police and investigators kept this a secret. Next detectives questioned Joe
Dick because he was Daniel Williams’ roommate. Ford questioned Joe and just
like Daniel Williams, Joe gave a false confession. Ford showed Joe a picture of
the crime scene and that’s where Joe got information for his false confession.
Eventually DNA results came back and he too was not a match. Investigators kept
questioning Joe until he gave them the name Eric Wilson. Eric Wilson was
arrested right off of his Mediterranean cruise and his DNA test came back
negative also but they kept him in jail too. Then Joe gave Derek Tice’s name
and his polygraph test came back negative but they did not let him go. After
eleven hours he too gave a false confession. Then three other men were charged
with gang rape and murder but their charges were dropped. Finally a man named
Omar Ballard wrote a letter from jail to his girlfriend expressing that he
killed Michelle Bosko. Even after Omar’s DNA match came back positive and
confessed he acted alone the police did not let the others out of jail.
Ultimately, the false, rehearsed confessions the men gave is what kept them in
jail.
The
murder took place in July 1997 at a naval station in Norfolk Virginia. The
population of Norfolk at that time was mostly naval men with their young wives
and family. The crime rate there was not particularly high. The demography of
the people involved in the case was all young white men, who were in the
navy. The victim was an
eighteen-year-old female. Omar Ballard, who says he committed the murder and
had his DNA matched was an African-American male who had a history of
assaulting women charges.
Although
there was not much pertaining to economics in this documentary, all of the
accused requested a lawyer besides Daniel Williams. Derek Tice requested a
lawyer but never received one. The politics that I found in this documentary
was the work the investigators and prosecutors were doing. They were keeping polygraph
tests and DNA results a secret, feeding the accused information about the crime
to enhance their confessions and denying lawyers. All of the acts mentioned
must be illegal however everyone in the justice department allowed this to go
on.
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| The four men who gave false confessions |
This
documentary shocked me. I find criminal justice stories to be very interesting
and I have seen many. This is the first story though that had so much evidence
in favor of the accused that the police force ignored. It’s very unjust and
unfair what happened to these accused men. Ford knew what he wanted the men to
tell him and he would not give up. At one point in the documentary, Derek reenacted
how Ford would interrogate them and broke down crying because it was too hard
for him to remember. I’ve never seen such an obvious case before but these
police would not admit that they were wrong. Even when John Danser had a very
legitimate alibi, Ford still charged him with gang rape and murder. All of the
confessions were obviously false, some even had to give seven plus confessions
to get it to exactly what the police wanted to hear. I feel that if this case
happened in present days, the men who gave false confessions would not have
been locked away for so long. The false confessions the men gave have turned
their world upside down and inside out. Even now when they were all released
from jail, they have to register as sex offenders. The justice system is very
much needed in society however there are definitely many faults within it.
thanks
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