On December 26, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Jackson ordered Virginia to uncon­di­tion­al­ly free death row inmate Justin Wolfe with­in 10 days and barred the state from using its key wit­ness in any retri­al of Wolfe. Wolfe was con­vict­ed of con­spir­a­cy in the mur­der of Daniel Petrole, a fel­low drug deal­er in north­ern Virginia. His con­vic­tion was based pri­mar­i­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of the actu­al shoot­er, Owen Barber, who claimed that Wolfe hired him to kill Petrole because of an out­stand­ing debt. In 2010, Barber tes­ti­fied in open court, sub­ject to cross-exam­i­na­tion, that his tes­ti­mo­ny at Wolfe’s tri­al was false, and that Wolfe had noth­ing to do with Petrole’s death. Barber has also admit­ted that he agreed to impli­cate Wolfe in order to avoid the death penal­ty. Judge Jackson held that Virginia had failed to com­ply with his ear­li­er order to either free Wolfe or retry him with­in 120 days. He called the state’s case a ​“bun­gled pros­e­cu­tion,” and con­clud­ed that the state’s with­hold­ing of key evi­dence about Barber from the defense pre­clud­ed any retri­al of Wolfe using Barber’s tes­ti­mo­ny in any form. Barber, who remains in prison, has recent­ly invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

The judge crit­i­cized a recent vis­it by the state with Barber as ​“the same sub­tle but unmis­tak­able coer­cion,” using the threat of the death penal­ty to induce Barber to tes­ti­fy against Wolfe. Kimberly Irving, one of Wolfe’s attor­neys, said of the court’s rul­ing, ​“We are pleased and we hope the court uncon­di­tion­al­ly releas­es him as Judge Jackson ordered. We believe it’s time for him to go home.”

(​“Federal judge bars Va. pros­e­cu­tors from retry­ing ex-death-row inmate in mur­der-for-hire case,” Associated Press in Washington Post, Dec. 26, 2012). See Innocence and DPIC’s page on Justin Wolfe.

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