Thirty-four high-pro­file for­mer judges and law enforce­ment offi­cials recent­ly filed an ami­cus brief argu­ing against Virginia​’s efforts to rein­state the con­vic­tion of Justin Wolfe (pic­tured). Wolfe’s attor­neys main­tain he was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in a 2002 mur­der-for-hire case because of false tes­ti­mo­ny from the actu­al shoot­er, Owen Barber. In 2005, Barber admit­ted to lying under oath, say­ing, ​“The pros­e­cu­tion and my own defense attor­ney placed me in a posi­tion in which I felt that I had to choose between false­ly tes­ti­fy­ing against Justin or dying.” In July 2011, a fed­er­al District Court over­turned Wolfe’s con­vic­tion, cit­ing the state’s use of Barber’s false tes­ti­mo­ny. Among those urg­ing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to affirm the District Court rul­ing are J. Joseph Curran Jr., who served as attor­ney gen­er­al of Maryland; Gerald Kogan, for­mer chief jus­tice of the Supreme Court of Florida; and for­mer attor­neys gen­er­al from Tennessee and New Jersey. 

The offi­cials believe the pros­e­cu­tion sup­pressed key evi­dence and failed to dis­close that police had made a deal with Barber that, if he tes­ti­fied against Wolfe, he would be spared the death penal­ty. The ami­cus brief states, ​“Under that agree­ment, Barber could avoid the death penal­ty by impli­cat­ing a ​‘high­er up.’ Before Barber ever men­tioned Wolfe’s name, police sug­gest­ed to Barber that Wolfe was the ​‘high­er up.’“ The brief con­clud­ed, ​“Given the obvi­ous mate­ri­al­i­ty of the with­held evi­dence in this case, there can be lit­tle ques­tion that its sup­pres­sion has ​‘undermine[d] con­fi­dence in the ver­dict,’ pos­ing an unac­cept­able risk that an inno­cent man may have been sen­tenced to death.” Owen Barber lat­er changed his sto­ry again, say­ing he had told the truth about Wolfe at trial.

(D. Sherfinksi, ​“Out-of-state offi­cials oppose restora­tion of death penal­ty — Validity of tes­ti­mo­ny ques­tioned after ver­dict,” Washington Times, March 26, 2012; Full text of Amici Curiae Brief of Former Judges, Prosecutors, and Senior Law Enforcement Officials Supporting Appellee Wolfe and Seeking Affirmance.) See Innocence. Read more New Voices on the death penalty.

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