Norfolk Sailor, Eric Wilson

Read about Greg McCormack’s representation of Eric Wilson, one of the “Norfolk Four” sailors who were coerced by a detective to make false confessions involving the rape and murder of a Navy dependent wife. Despite the fact that two of the sailors secured guilty plea agreements to avoid the death penalty, Mr. McCormack fought the prosecution on Eric’s case at every turn. Three of the sailors were convicted of capital murder and rape, and each was sentenced to two life sentences. Eric, who ‘confessed’ only involvement as to the rape, was acquitted by the jury of murder, but based on his ‘confession,’ the jury returned a verdict of guilty on the rape charge, but imposed an extremely lenient sentence of 8 ½ years.

After all trials were completed, extensive post-trial activity occurred in Eric’s case, as well as one of the other sailors whose convictions were set aside on appeal, but was again convicted on retrial with double life sentences. After years of post-trial activity, full pardons were eventually issued by the Virginia Governor for all four defendants, resulting in subsequent payment of extensive damages for the wrongful convictions. The Wrong Guys, written by Tom Wells and Richard Leo, describes the litigation skill of Greg McCormack, which was later attested to at length during a function of participating attorneys after full pardons were obtained.

Click here to watch a video with more details on this case.