Federal Court Excoriates Prosecutors in Grant of Relief to Former Virginia Death-Sentenced Prisoner Who Has Always Maintained His Innocence

On July 7, 2025, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of for­mer Virginia death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Justin Wolfe, vacat­ing a low­er court dis­missal of his most recent habeas peti­tion, and paving the way for a new hear­ing where Mr. Wolfe will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pro­vide new evi­dence in sup­port of his inno­cence. Mr. Wolfe was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 2002 for the 2001 mur­der-for-hire of his cannabis sup­pli­er in Northern Virginia. In his most recent peti­tion, coun­sel for Mr. Wolfe argue that a 2023 signed dec­la­ra­tion from the indi­vid­ual respon­si­ble for car­ry­ing out the mur­der, exon­er­ates him and proves his actu­al inno­cence. Attorneys for the Commonwealth pre­vi­ous­ly argued that this dec­la­ra­tion was not new evi­dence, and in 2023, a fed­er­al judge agreed with them. However, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals pan­el dis­agreed, cit­ing the mis­con­duct of pros­e­cu­tors, and find­ing Owen Barber’s 2023 dec­la­ra­tion ​“con­sti­tutes new evi­dence” that was not previously available.

Ultimately, the Fourth Circuit found that the 2023 dec­la­ra­tion from Mr. Barber exon­er­at­ing Mr. Wolfe con­sti­tutes new evi­dence ​“because it ren­dered Barber avail­able to [Mr. Wolfe] as an excul­pa­to­ry wit­ness when Barber had pre­vi­ous­ly been unavail­able pur­suant to his invo­ca­tion of his Fifth Amendment privilege.” 

In 2011, a fed­er­al judge halt­ed a sched­uled exe­cu­tion date for Mr. Wolfe and dis­missed all of the charges against him, find­ing that pros­e­cu­tors had ignored evi­dence that con­tra­dict­ed their the­o­ry of the crime. The judge ordered the Commonwealth to release Mr. Wolfe and barred a retri­al. In 2012, the Fourth Circuit reversed this deci­sion and just days lat­er, local pros­e­cu­tors approached Mr. Barber in prison, where inves­ti­ga­tors, on the record, threat­ened Mr. Barber with the death penal­ty if he exon­er­at­ed Mr. Wolfe dur­ing the retri­al. Because of this threat, Mr. Barber invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused to tes­ti­fy for Mr. Wolfe. Facing the threat of anoth­er pos­si­ble death sen­tence, in 2016, Mr. Wolfe agreed to plead guilty to new charges and he was sen­tenced to 41 years in prison.

Mr. Wolfe lat­er appealed his con­vic­tion, argu­ing that he made the plea invol­un­tar­i­ly because pros­e­cu­tors engaged in an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and vin­dic­tive pros­e­cu­tion after fed­er­al courts found his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence had been ini­tial­ly obtained through prosecutorial misconduct.

The Fourth Circuit pan­el found that Mr. Barber’s 2023 sworn dec­la­ra­tion is indeed new evi­dence, and that he is a cred­i­ble wit­ness. The pan­el wrote that Mr. Barber ​“is an impris­oned man who has strug­gled for decades between telling the truth and pre­serv­ing his own life. We can­not con­done the Commonwealth’s con­duct in cre­at­ing this dichoto­my.” Citing the threat­en­ing behav­ior of pros­e­cu­tors in this case, the pan­el acknowl­edged that Mr. Wolfe’s ​“case is a text­book exam­ple of the con­duct we have rec­og­nized ren­ders a plea involuntary.”