NORFOLK, Va. – A man exonerated after spending nearly 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit— due to the tactics of disgraced former detective Robert Glenn Ford — told me he is thrilled there will finally be an independent review of Ford’s old cases.
“That was huge,” said Joseph Carter during our conversation about his reaction to the announcement. “I was all smiles.”
Last month, Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi announced his office’s partnership with the University of Virginia School of Law's Project for Informed Reform to review cases connected to Ford.
"We've opened the files," said Fatehi during his exclusive interview with me ahead of the news conference announcing the partnership. "I'm not going to play 'hide the ball' anymore like prosecutors of the 1990s and the 2000s did."
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Prior to this new partnership, investigations by attorneys with the University of Virginia School of Law’s Innocence Project indicated that Ford’s history of false statements, extortion and coercion led to the wrongful conviction and incarceration of several people, including Carter.
Carter spent nearly three decades in prison for the 1989 murder of Juan Nunez-Reyes in Norfolk. Carter was officially exonerated in 2021 after the UVA Innocence Project successfully proved Ford "encouraged false witness testimony that wrongfully implicated Carter.” When Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam granted Carter an absolute pardon, he said Carter was “an unfortunate victim of Norfolk Detective Glenn Ford, who used his official capacity to extort witnesses in order to yield high solvability percentages.”
“It was hell,” said Carter while explaining his time in prison. “I was in there for doing something that I did not do.”
Ford, who worked as a homicide and drug detective for the Norfolk Police Department in the 1980s and 1990s, is infamous for his role in the wrongful conviction and incarceration of the "Norfolk Four." Ford used intimidating tactics to force four sailors to falsely confess to the 1997 rape and murder of Michelle Moore Bosko, even though no evidence at the crime scene connected the men to the woman’s rape and murder. Each of the sailors spent roughly a decade in prison. They were later exonerated.
Eric Wilson, a member of the Norfolk Four, spoke during the news conference announcing the review of Ford’s old cases. He said he hopes others who maintained their innocence will come forward.
"It is better to have a guilty man go free than imprison an innocent man for a day, and I think we've forgotten that in our system," he said, referencing a famous law quote.
While Ford was not criminally charged for his role in any of the wrongful incarcerations tied to his tactics, the Federal Bureau of Investigations arrested him for extortion, conspiracy and making false statements in unrelated cases during his time as a detective with the Norfolk Police Department. According to the Associated Press, Ford took tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from drug dealers in exchange for getting them favorable treatment at sentencing. A federal judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison for those crimes in 2011. He served a decade of that sentence and is now a free man.
"The tragedy of investigator Ford's crimes is that it undermines any work that he did that was not bad," said Fatehi. "It causes everyone to question who was imprisoned because of the poison that came from his having touched a case."
Carter told me he believes the review will show Ford’s tactics put more innocent people in prison.
I asked Carter, “You met other people in prison who said Ford impacted their cases?”
“Right. Exactly,” he responded.
Fatehi offered no comment when I asked if his office would pursue criminal charges against Ford for his role in any wrongful convictions and incarcerations. He said their focus is making sure “the right people are in prison for the right reasons.”
An attorney for Ford declined to comment on the review.
The UVA School of Law is asking anyone who believes their case, or their loved one's case, was impacted by Robert Glenn Ford to email deirdre@virginia.edu or call 434-924-3732.
