Two courts have now indicated that death row inmate Justin Michael Wolfe’s conviction of hiring the murder of drug dealer Daniel Petrole, Jr. should be overturned. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson’s ruling to toss out the conviction because prosecutors withheld evidence that would have discredited key testimony from the trigger man, Owen Barber IV, namely that Barber was told by a detective he could avoid the death penalty if he fingered Wolfe.
Barber recanted his testimony in 2005 and later switched back to his original story. A state attorney, however, confirmed in testimony that his office did not always share evidence with the defense.
As reported in this Washington Post article, the case “exposed a multimillion dollar drug ring run by young people barely out of high school.” Wolfe was allegedly involved in this. However, as reported here, the District Court’s overturning of Wolfe’s conviction of murder had the support of high-level jurists and former attorneys general who filed an amicus brief here urging the Court of Appeals to uphold the District Court’s ruling.
The State of Virginia must now determine if it will appeal the ruling, retry the case, or drop the charges against Wolfe.
Wrongful Convictions Blog 
“namely that Barber was told by a detective he could avoid the death penalty if he fingered Wolfe.” This seems to occur far too often. I’m happy to see the courts’ rulings on this. I hope it helps with other cases.