How to delete files with Terminal

[Donna Luder]

Hello all-
I'm running 10.2 on a new Superdrive iMac and 10.1.x on a G4 powerbook. 
  I often end up with files in my trash can that I can't delete because 
they are locked.  Yet, when I open the trash can to figure out how to 
unlock the files, it's empty.  My cousin was visiting a few months ago 
and he emptied my trash but now it's full again.  Normally I would just 
ignore it, but now there are about 30 copies of Netscape in there and I 
have to click the little "Ignore" box over and over and over and over 
every time I empty the trash.  So how do I use terminal to delete those 
files?  I looked in my Mac OS X Bible and my Little Black Book on OSX 
and neither of them had any suggestions.  I'm hoping someone here will.
Thanks in advance
Donna