New Accusations of Prosecutorial Misconduct in Virginia Capital Case Emerge Three Years After State Abolishes Death Penalty

A June 2024 peti­tion filed in the Prince William County, Virginia Circuit Court, accus­es for­mer Commonwealth Attorney (CA) Paul Ebert of with­hold­ing excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence dur­ing the tri­al of Louis Jefferson Dukes Jr., who, along with his nephew Lonnie Weeks Jr., was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing a state troop­er in 1994 dur­ing a traf­fic stop. Mr. Dukes was found guilty and sen­tenced to life in prison, while Mr. Weeks was found guilty, received the death penal­ty, and was exe­cut­ed in 2000. In the peti­tion filed with the cir­cuit court, Mr. Dukes’ attor­ney alleges that CA Ebert made ​“mate­r­i­al mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions” in court when the pros­e­cu­tion claimed that serol­o­gy reports estab­lished Mr. Dukes’ prox­im­i­ty to the state troop­er when he was killed. The peti­tion states that ​“the commonwealth’s attor­ney knew this was not the victim’s blood on [Mr. Dukes’] jack­et,” despite his argu­ments regard­ing prox­im­i­ty. Richard MacDowell, an attor­ney for Mr. Dukes, alleges that CA Ebert also made a deal with Mr. Dukes’ cell­mate that includ­ed a promise to seek a reduced sen­tence in exchange for tes­ti­mo­ny in Mr. Dukes’ case. 

Throughout his more than 50 years in office, CA Ebert secured 13 death sen­tences, plac­ing Prince William County, Virginia, on the list of top death penal­ty juris­dic­tions. Despite his suc­cess secur­ing death sen­tences, courts have found sev­er­al oth­er instances in which CA Ebert and his office with­held excul­pa­to­ry mate­r­i­al in cap­i­tal cas­es. In 2009, CA Ebert was crit­i­cized for with­hold­ing evi­dence in the case of John Allen Muhammad, but the Court decid­ed the evi­dence would not have altered the trial’s out­come. Just two years lat­er, cit­ing evi­dence that CA Ebert’s office once again with­held evi­dence, U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson over­turned the cap­i­tal con­vic­tion of Justin Wolfe, hold­ing that cru­cial impeach­ment evi­dence was with­held from the defense. Upholding Jude Jackson’s rul­ing, the appeals court wrote that because of the ear­li­er rul­ing in Mr. Muhammad’s case, CA Ebert’s office should ​“err on the side of dis­clo­sure, espe­cial­ly when a defen­dant is fac­ing the specter of execution.”

While CA Ebert pur­sued the death penal­ty tire­less­ly, his suc­cess ulti­mate­ly dwin­dled as pub­lic opin­ion in Virginia regard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment shift­ed. In 2018, CA Ebert failed to secure a death sen­tence in his final mur­der tri­al and told the Washington Post that Prince William County had changed since he first took office. ​“The demo­graph­ics of Prince William were rel­a­tive­ly con­ser­v­a­tive all those years and much more pro-death,” CA Ebert said. ​“And I always knew some­one on the jury. Now, I sel­dom know some­one on the jury.” CA Ebert strong­ly sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and dis­cred­it­ed the idea the life in prison with­out parole is worse than a death sen­tence. Responding to crit­i­cism regard­ing with­hold­ing evi­dence, CA Ebert said his office ​“always fol­lowed the law and rules of court as [he under­stood] them.” He added that he would ​“not apol­o­gize for being tough on crime.”

In 2019, CA Ebert retired and was suc­ceed­ed by Amy Ashworth, who lead­ing up to her elec­tion, said she sup­port­ed the notion of repeal­ing the death penal­ty but would be open to seek­ing the pun­ish­ment as long as it was avail­able. Ms. Ashworth told The Appeal that she did ​“not think the death penal­ty is appro­pri­ate in most cas­es” and that ulti­mate­ly ​“the bot­tom line is the death penal­ty should be extra­or­di­nar­i­ly rare.” CA Ashworth won elec­tion in 2019 and just two years lat­er, in March 2021, then-Governor Ralph Northam signed leg­is­la­tion for­mal­ly abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty in Virginia.