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| Judge who overturned inmate's death sentence orders his return to death row |
| By timesdispatch.com - Frank Green |
| Published: 12/02/2011 |
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A federal judge who overturned Justin Wolfe's death sentence has ordered his return to death row, citing harsher restrictions Wolfe had received in segregation elsewhere. Wolfe, 30, was convicted in 2002 of a drug-related murder-for-hire in Prince William County. The case was tossed out in July by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson, who was critical of the evidence and who found prosecutorial misconduct. Jackson gave the state 120 days to retry Wolfe or let him go. The Virginia Attorney General's Office appealed the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the matter is pending. Meanwhile, Wolfe, then no longer under a death sentence, was transferred from death row at Sussex I State Prison to nearby Sussex II State Prison. Once at Sussex II, he was placed in administrative segregation and, initially at least, he was under tighter restrictions and lost some of his death row privileges — moves his lawyers argued were punitive. Court papers show the Virginia Department of Corrections explained that Wolfe was placed in segregation in part for his own protection because his case had gained notoriety and another inmate might attack him to make a name for himself. Last week, Jackson issued a 23-page order sending Wolfe back to death row. Jackson wrote that even if, as the state contends, the intent was not to penalize Wolfe, "the effect of Wolfe's transfer to Sussex II has been just that — punitive." The judge wrote that the reasons given by officials for transferring Wolfe are at best inconsistent, "and the result has been that Wolfe is in a worse position in segregation at Sussex II than when he was on death row at Sussex I." Wolfe, Jackson held, "was prejudiced by this transfer, as he was subject to more onerous conditions, on the whole, in segregation than when he was housed on death row." Read More. |
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