Ending the pursuit of an innocent man
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In 2001, aggressive Prince William County prosecutors concealed critical evidence that would have helped Justin Michael Wolfe’s defense against a murder charge. They withheld eight pieces of material evidence, persuaded the real killer to implicate Wolfe to get a lighter sentence, then argued successfully to put 19-year-old Wolfe on death row.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals documented the behavior by prosecutors and police. The court upheld a federal judge’s decision to vacate Wolfe’s convictions and death sentence.
Rather than seek a rehearing in federal court or a retrial in Prince William County, the state should stop its years-long persecution of Wolfe and set him free.