Crime & Safety

Former Death Row Inmate Justin Wolfe May Be Retried

Misconduct by prosecutors was not reason enough to prevent the retrial of a capital murder case, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A federal appeals court in Virginia ruled Wednesday that misconduct by Prince William County prosecutors should not prevent the Commonwealth of Virginia from retrying Justin Michael Wolfe for the 2001 murder of his drug dealer, Daniel Robert Petrole Jr., of Centreville.

Wolfe was first convicted of ordering the murder due in large part to testimony from the triggerman, Owen Merton Barber IV—who has since recanted his story.

Saying that prosecutors had suppressed evidence, a lower federal court ordered Wolfe's release last year—but the appeals court ruled Wednesday that this was an "overbroad remedy" and the district court had "abused its discretion" in preventing Wolfe's retrial.

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"Though we reiterate that a federal habeas court possesses substantial discretion in fashioning an appropriate remedy, preventing the retrial of a state criminal case is the strongest of medicine. And it is a measure that should be utilized with the utmost restraint, only in the most extraordinary of circumstances," U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Judge Robert B. King wrote in an opinion for the majority.

Wolfe is currently in the custody of Prince William County. A retrial has yet to be scheduled in county court.

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"We are confident that the retrial will be properly handled, and, if convictions result, that the appellate courts will perform their duties," the appeals court ruled. 

Special prosecutor Raymond Morrogh was appointed to the case last fall after Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert recused himself. Morrogh subsequently moved to retry Wolfe in Prince William County Circuit Court.

But the U.S. District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson ruled in December that prosecutors failed to comply with orders and barred the Commonwealth from retrying Wolfe. 

The appeals court, in authorizing the retrial Wednesday, said Jackson's order went too far. 

"Put succinctly, the constitutional claims for which Wolfe was awarded habeas corpus relief are readily capable of being remedied in a new trial."


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