UVA Law Innocence Project Clinic Scores a Death Row Exoneration
From a UVA press release:
A federal judge on Monday threw out the conviction and death sentence of Justin Wolfe of Chantilly, through the efforts of the University of Virginia School of Law‘s Innocence Project Clinic and partnering organizations.
The clinic worked closely with Wolfe’s pro bono attorneys at the Washington, D.C., law firm King & Spalding and the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center to demonstrate that the prosecutors in Wolfe’s trial had suppressed evidence that would have exonerated Wolfe. In his ruling, U.S. Judge Raymond A. Jackson agreed that the prosecutors’ conduct resulted in an unfair trial.
“We’re elated and gratified,” said Deirdre Enright, director of investigation for the Innocence Project Clinic. “It’s rare to get relief in death penalty cases and rarer still to lay it at the feet of prosecutors.”
Wolfe, who has been on death row since 2002, was convicted of murder for hire and sentenced to die in a case that received national attention and involved an extensive drug ring run by suburban middle-class youths in Northern Virginia.
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Congrats, UVA Innocence Project Clinic!
