On July 12, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson over­turned the mur­der con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of Justin Wolfe (pic­tured), who alleged­ly orches­trat­ed the slay­ing of his mar­i­jua­na sup­pli­er, Daniel Petrole Jr., in Virginia over a decade ago. Judge Jackson ruled that pros­e­cu­tors in Wolfe’s case with­held or ignored cru­cial evi­dence that could have helped Wolfe’s defense. The Court held that Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert and his assis­tant Richard Conway allowed the use of false tes­ti­mo­ny from the admit­ted shoot­er that linked Wolfe to the slay­ing, failed to dis­close evi­dence that oth­ers might have want­ed to kill Petrole, and orches­trat­ed the tes­ti­mo­ny of key wit­ness­es. The key state wit­ness against Wolfe lat­er recant­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny. Judge Jackson wrote, ​“Ebert and Conway’s actions served to deprive Wolfe of any sub­stan­tive defense in a case where his life would rest on the jury’s ver­dict. The Court finds these actions not only uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in regards to due process, but abhor­rent to the judi­cial process.” The Court also found that Wolfe’s Sixth Amendment right to an impar­tial jury was vio­lat­ed by the improp­er exclu­sion of a potential juror.

Earlier, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit remand­ed the case to the District Court to deter­mine whether Wolfe met the nec­es­sary stan­dard of pos­si­ble inno­cence (Schlup v. Delo, U.S. 1995) required to receive a hear­ing on his con­sti­tu­tion­al claims. The District Court held that Wolfe qual­i­fied under the Schlup stan­dard of inno­cence and pro­ceed­ed with the con­sid­er­a­tion of the claims dis­cussed above. The state may appeal the District Court’s deci­sion, retry Wolfe, or drop charges.

(J. White, ​“Va. judge throws out drug deal­er’s death sen­tence in slay­ing,” Washington Post, July 12, 2011; Wolfe v. Clarke, No. 2:05cv432). See Innocence, Prosecutorial Misconduct, and Arbitrariness. [UPDATE: In March 2016, Wolfe plead­ed guilty to first-degree felony mur­der and oth­er less­er charges that col­lec­tive­ly car­ry a term of 29 – 41 years in prison. At the time of the plea, he had already served 15 years in prison. T. Jackman and T.R. Shapiro, ​“Justin Wolfe admits role in drug dealer’s slay­ing, enters guilty plea after stint on death row,” Washington Post, March 29, 2016.]

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