RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Advocates for four sailors convicted in the rape and murder of a Norfolk woman issued a plea for clemency Friday, the same day one of the men suffered a setback in the Virginia Supreme Court.

The court unanimously reinstated Derek Tice's conviction, which had been vacated by a judge who ruled that a defense lawyer should have sought to suppress the defendant's confession.

Two former Virginia attorneys general joined several other lawyers and a homicide detective at a news conference to implore Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to grant absolute pardons to the "Norfolk Four" -- Tice, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick Jr. and Eric Wilson.

Wilson was convicted of raping 18-year-old Michelle Moore-Bosko of Norfolk but was acquitted of her murder. The other three were initially convicted in the slaying. A fifth person, Omar Ballard, subsequently was convicted.

Supporters of the Norfolk Four say there is overwhelming evidence that Ballard acted alone.

"There should be no innocent people in Virginia's prisons," said former Attorney General Richard Cullen. "But unfortunately, I'm convinced that today there are three men serving terms of life in prison for a crime they simply didn't commit."

Another former attorney general, Anthony F. Troy, said he also has reviewed the voluminous case files and concluded that the four men were wrongly convicted primarily because of false confessions. George H. Kendall, an attorney for the men, emphasized that the Supreme Court ruling in Tice's case centered on a narrow issue: whether the failure to challenge the confession violated Tice's right to effective assistance of counsel. A circuit judge ruled that it did, but the Supreme Court disagreed.

"Tice failed to meet his burden of proving ... that there was a reasonable probability of a different result at his criminal trial if the jury had not considered his confession," Justice Barbara Milano Keenan wrote.

Kendall said Kaine has much more to consider in two clemency petitions -- one for Wilson, another for the remaining three.

"What is before Kaine is actual innocence," Kendall said.

Kaine inherited the clemency petitions from Mark R. Warner, who received them shortly before leaving office two years ago.

"Only Governor Kaine can right this horrible wrong through the exercise of his clemency power," said E. Tazewell Ellett, past president of the Virginia Bar Association and a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Hogan & Hartson, which is participating in the clemency effort.

Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey was unable to say when the governor might make a decision.

"The governor never comments on clemency petitions," Hickey said.

Advocates for the Norfolk Four said only Ballard's DNA was found at the crime scene, and the tidy appearance of Moore-Bosko's apartment and the pattern of her wounds suggested there was only one assailant. Also, Ballard has repeatedly said he acted alone, they said.

The confessions of the other four men conflicted with each other and with crime scene evidence, their supporters said.

"Only one confession matched the facts -- Omar Ballard's," said James Trainum, a Washington, D.C., homicide detective whose job includes reviewing cases dating back several years to make sure there were no mistakes.

Trainum said false confessions are not as rare as one might think, and he said they can be obtained -- as in this case -- "by good police officers using standard practices." Trainum said he has obtained two false confessions himself.

He said innocent defendants can "feel trapped and that it's in their best interests to give us the information we want," even if the information is falsely incriminating. He suggested that's what happened in the Norfolk Four case, with well-intentioned police eliciting one false confession and using it to set off a "domino effect" resulting in the others.

In Tice's case, the defendant claimed that police continued interrogating him after he invoked his right to remain silent.

The parents of Tice, Dick and Williams released a written statement Friday saying their sons and Williams "have spent the best years of their lives locked away in maximum security prisons for a crime they did not commit."

Moore-Bosko's mother, Carol Moore, said after the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in October that she believes Tice confessed because he is guilty.

"I don't understand why they think this man is innocent," she said at the time.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)