A compelling case for clemency

A messy, wrenching murder case that should have been over eight years ago still bothers some of Virginia's most respected legal minds.

It should bother all of us.

Michelle Moore-Bosko, 18, a newlywed and Navy wife, was found raped, stabbed and strangled in her Norfolk apartment in 1997. Over the course of a year, police fingered eight men in her attack, obtaining confessions and arresting one after another until they found Omar Ballard. Ballard, whose DNA and fingerprints matched the physical evidence at the crime scene, was convicted in 2000. Four others were convicted as well.

The cases against the four others - sailors dubbed the Norfolk Four - have brought together a handful of respected lawyers, both Republicans and Democrats.

Separately, four former state attorneys general, a former state bar association president and a veteran homicide detective - law-and-order types who don't typically stand up for convicted rapists and murderers - reviewed the cumulative evidence against the sailors and concluded the criminal justice system got it wrong.

To uphold the convictions, they contend, you would have to believe that Moore-Bosko willingly allowed eight men into her apartment and was raped and murdered without seven of the eight leaving any evidence behind.

You would have to disregard the confessions of the four, each of which contradicted the others as well as the evidence found at the crime scene. You would have to disregard the statement of a veteran Navy officer who said one of the men was on duty aboard the USS Saipan the night of the murder and could not have been involved.

On Friday, the same day the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed the convictions of one of the men, Derek Tice, on a narrow constitutional issue, the distinguished group publicly asked for help from the only remaining person with the power to act based on a panoramic view of all the evidence: Gov. Tim Kaine.

"Based on the entirety of the evidence showing that the Norfolk Four are innocent, Gov. Kaine should act now to correct this grave miscarriage of justice and grant clemency," said Richard Cullen, a former state attorney general and a Republican.

Also supporting clemency are Anthony Troy, Andrew Miller and Stephen Rosenthal, all former attorneys general and Democrats; Tazewell Ellett, former Virginia Bar Association president; 12 former judges and prosecutors; and 13 jurors from the trials of Tice and Eric Wilson, who say they would not have voted to convict if they'd heard all the evidence now before the governor.

Our system of justice is usually fair, but it's not perfect. This is one of those moments.

In our system, the governor is the final fail-safe against a breakdown in our courts.

Kaine has an obligation to set it right.