Originally published in the Autumn 2024 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 75, printed November 6. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Autumn 2024 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

Staff Report

Former prisoners, family members and their supporters held a rally Oct. 12 at Norfolk’s Town Point Park to demand justice for people they say were wrongfully convicted as a result of actions taken by a crooked cop.

“These men are not just statistics, they are human beings who have lost years of their lives and been denied their basic human rights,” said Angela White, the wife of a Virginia prisoner and the founder of From Conviction 2 Redemption, the organization sponsoring the rally.

The formerly incarcerated men and their family members and supporters who addressed the crowd were speaking about cases connected to a nowdiscredited Norfolk police detective, Robert Glenn Ford, who in 2010 was sentenced to prison for 12-and-a-half years for extortion and lying about it to the FBI.

Among the rally speakers was Gilbert Merritt III, who served most of a 30-year sentence. He was fully exonerated after receiving support from the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law and later pardoned by then-Gov. Ralph Northam.

The [Norfolk] Virginian-Pilot has reported that two other people have been freed who had been convicted in cases where Ford was the lead detective.

Altogether, Ford was involved in hundreds of cases.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia at the time of Ford’s sentencing, “The evidence presented at trial showed that in instances dating back to the 1990s, Ford obtained monetary payments exceeding $80,000 from and on behalf of individuals charged with criminal offenses, in return for helping them secure release on bond and sentence reductions by falsely representing to prosecutors and judges that these individuals provided assistance in the investigation of homicides in Norfolk. Ford also made false statements to federal agents during a voluntary interview conducted during an investigation.”

What Ford did not get prosecuted for was framing people. One of his most notorious cases was that of the Norfolk Four, four sailors convicted of a 1997 rape and murder. All the men said they only confessed because of prolonged, intense interrogation by Ford, who was the lead investigator in the case.

In 2009, the four received conditional pardons from then-Gov. Tim Kaine. In 2017, after new evidence was found, they were exonerated, and finally were granted absolute pardons by Gov. Terry McAuliffe. In 2018, they received a combined settlement of $8.4 million from the City of Norfolk and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Another case that has received publicity is that of Jermaine Doss of Norfolk. Originally charged with murder-for-hire, he was convicted in 1999 of first-degree murder as an accessory before the fact.

Doss was convicted after the actual confessed murderer, Nathaniel McGee, testified against him. But McGee later repeatedly stated that he gave false testimony because prosecutors had threatened him with the death penalty.

It was Ford who had arrested McGee. Doss has said that Ford tried to shake him down for a large sum of money or else Ford would take him off the streets. Doss said he refused the extortion demand, and then was arrested.

McGee was sentenced to 17 years for the murder, plus more time for related crimes, and is scheduled to be released from Pocahontas State Correctional Center on Nov. 22. Ford was released several years ago after serving most of his sentence.

Doss was sentenced to life-plus-38 years, and was recently turned down for parole for the fifth time.

Doss’ sister Felicia Dixon spoke about his case at the rally, and Angela White read a statement from the Virginia Defenders, who have been supporting Doss for more than 15 years.

On Oct. 27, 2023, Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi announced there would be a conviction integrity review of all closed prosecution files associated with Ford.

Earlier this year, Fatehi told the Defender that he had turned over all his files on Ford cases to the UVA Innocence Project. The project’s founder, Professor Deirdre Enright, now leads a new effort called the Project for Informed Reform, which reportedly is taking the lead on examining Ford-related cases.

UVA Law describes PIR as “a clinic in which students will work alongside scholars and experts to conduct extensive research and investigation on issues relating to criminal justice, and then generate evidence-based data and policy recommendations.”