The Norfolk Five: Case Study

Frontline: The Confession

The Norfolk Four

Randa Seder

A Briefing on the Case

On 1997 four men were convicted of the rape and murder of Michelle Basko. The four men were Joe Dick, Daniel Williams, Eric Wilson, and Derek Tice. Detective Robert Ford believed that the four U.S. navy men were all guilty of the crime. One of the victim’s friend claimed that Daniel Williams, was Michelle Basko’s murderer. Based on the information provided by Basko’s friend, Ford suspected that William was guilty. With that, the series of harsh interrogations led by detective Robert Ford began. Detective Ford began his interrogatories with a label that Williams is the suspect. The psychological abuse he used, led Williams to make a false confession.

As a result of Ford’s threatening interrogatories, the four suspects made a false confession, in which they stated that they committed the murder. The tight, dark room and the long time the interrogatories took made the four men subject to Ford’s psychological abuse and falsely confessed. Most of them said that they told him what he wanted to hear. The author Chapman (2013) argued that, “psychological research is applied to interrogation, the result can be that the officer already believes that the suspect committed the crime and is not likely to take no as an answer,” (p.162). In the Norfolk Four case, Ford began his interrogatories by a prior assumption that the four suspects were involved in the case. As Chapman (2013) noted, “ the interrogator will use whatever means necessary to elicit a confession, and not only will the suspect confess, but they will form false memories of the crimes they did not commit,” (p.162). Joseph Dick, one of the four suspects in the Norfolk Four case, claimed that due to the harsh interrogatories, he accepted the label put on him and began to believe that he committed the crime. Accordingly, Joseph Dick and the others began telling false narratives of the way they committed the crime. Even though, their narratives contradicted with evidence and facts of the actual murder, Ford proceeded to psychologically abuse the four suspects in order to hear what he wanted to hear. In addition, Chapman (2013) also argued that there are a lot of factors that determine whether a suspect make a false confession or not. In fact he indicated that :“ those who make false confessions do so because of a combination of mental elements, personality, intelligence, and the environment of the interrogation,” ( Chapman, 2013, p.164) The author also explained that the police usually isolate, accuse, and convey sympathy to the suspect ( Chapman,2013,p.165). Though, Ford, in the Norfolk Four, used