The Wrong Guys

Jesse's cousin Bonnie and her husband Erik had their first baby yesterday! Isaac Julius Seefeldt was born at 11:40 am weighing 7# 11 oz, and stretching out to 19" long. Bonnie's labor was fairly short for a first time mom, but pretty intense. I went to Green Bay to visit them today, and he is so cute! It's been ages since I held a baby that tiny in my arms, and he was a complete gentleman. He didn't cry when I took pictures, and he even let me burp him and then fell asleep in my arms. Isaac has a full head of spiky hair and dark blue eyes. I can't wait to spoil him rotten! Because no one can get enough baby pictures, I'm posting a few here.

After visiting with the new family, I went to the elementary school to pick up Mia. As I stood in the lobby waiting for the last bell to ring, I looked around at the other moms and kids waiting with me. There were little toddlers of a year or two, along with some preschoolers, and I kept thinking about Isaac. I couldn't help but wonder how he will look at each age, and I am so happy and blessed that I get to be a part of that journey. God has placed this perfect new little person in our family, and each one of us has a responsibility to live in a way that shows God's love to this little guy. It's an amazing blessing and responsibility.

The Wrong Guys by Tom Wells and Richard Leo details the infamous case of the Norfolk Four. In 1997, a Navy private named Billy Bosko returned to the apartment he shared with his wife Michelle to discover her murdered body in their bedroom. He raced across the hallway of the building to a neighbor to ask him to call 911. That phone call sucked the neighbor, Danial Williams, into a nightmare that he and his family are still fighting today. The police quickly focused on Williams as a suspect, despite the fact that his wife remembered waking up in the middle of the night with him next to her as she heard raised male and female voices in the Bosko apartment. The police discounted that alibi and all other evidence proving Williams' innocence (his wife died four months later without ever being questioned) including DNA evidence that cleared him. Williams spent hours without food or sleep being interrogated by a police officer who had pre-determined Williams' guilt. Williams decided that he was never going to get out of the interrogation unless he confessed to a crime he didn't commit. When the DNA evidence cleared him, the police instead decided that he must have had a confederate and started questioning Joe Dick Jr, Williams' former roommate. Dick, who has a low IQ and is easily led, was easily convinced by the police that he had committed the crime with Williams (again, Dick had an alibi the police never checked on) and he confessed as well. When DNA evidence cleared him too, he started naming men he knew only casually as his accomplices until a total of seven men were charged with the crime. Even when the real killer confessed to the crime and was convicted (it was his DNA), the police were still convinced that the eight men killed poor Michelle together. Three of the Norfolk Four are still imprisoned, and their case is currently under review by Virginia's governor for a pardon. Wells and Leo lay out their case for the men's innocence like the best of attorneys starting with the crime itself and then bringing in experts to back up their case. The story is a frightening indictment of a prosecutorial system that refuses to admit when its committed wrong. It's well written, and while I can't say I enjoyed it, I definitely couldn't put it down.

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