End of the Line

I was watching PBS the other evening and a story came on the show “Frontline” about the conviction and release years later of the “Norfolk 4”. It was a story of dishonest police tactics, the despair of prison, yet the amazing capacity of humans to survive. I thought immediately of a favorite song of mine from 1989, by the Traveling Willburys. The song, “End of the Line”, is an up tempo ballad featuring Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and George Harrison.



One verse in this song about getting through life until “judgment day” went:


“Well its alright
even if they say you’re wrong
well its all right
sometimes you gotta be strong”.


The story of the “Norfolk 4” should be a sobering reminder that just because the powers that be say someone is guilty doesn’t make it so. It is the story of four young sailors from the USS George Washington who were accused and convicted of the brutal rape and murder of a Norfolk woman. An overzealous detective lied, coerced and threatened all four men. A jury believed the Commonwealth’s case even though the police knew DNA testing of all four men cleared them of involvement. That evidence was withheld from the four defendants.


All four spent almost twelve years in a high security level Virginia penitentiary before being released by executive act of the former Governor.


Unless you have been on the receiving end of a police interrogation you cannot imagine the deceit that is used. It is not about “getting to the truth”, it’s about finding someone to convict. Thousands of men and women are wrongly convicted each year in this country.


John Grisham has a new bestselling novel out called “The Confession” that is a stinging indictment of capital punishment in Texas. The book is selling well, but will it make a difference? Will the public finally give a damn about justice and force states to reform police practices, the courts and prisons?


I remember a conversation I had with my wife a few months before my arrest. She reminded me (during a heated debate about terrorists) that on our first date I told her “its better that a thousand guilty men walk free than one innocent man be executed”. I looked at her like she was nuts. “One life, small price to pay for safety.”


I was wrong in my later opinion. No innocent person should ever have to see the inside of a prison. Justice requires more. Justice demands perfection when a person’s liberty, his freedom, is at stake.


We claim we accept as a basic tenet of American justice “you are innocent until proven guilty”. Fact is, from the moment a person is arrested and the weight of the state begins to pressure you, and the story is released to the newspapers or TV, perception that the person is guilty begins to grow like a giant wave.


Ask the security guard wrongly accused of setting off the bomb at the Atlanta Olympics; ask the Duke Lacrosse players; ask the Norfolk 4.


Laura Hillenbrand, author of the book “Seabiscuit” has a new bestseller out called “Unbroken”. It is the true story of Louis Zamperini, a navy flyer shot down in the Pacific. He survived 47 days on a leaky raft only to be captured by the Japanese, imprisoned and tortured.


It is the story of him overcoming imprisonment, alcoholism and bitterness by finding his faith, forgiving his captors and living a wonderful life.


Consider the accused. Keep an open mind. Look in your heart for what justice really means. Demand perfection from the system. You never know when you or a loved one will be on the receiving end of the criminal justice system.


As the Willburys said “sometime you gotta be strong”. There is strength in real justice, not retribution or vindictiveness, but true justice. And true justice demands what happened to the Norfolk 4 should never happen again.