Justin Wolfe, who was sentenced to death in Virginia more than two decades ago for a murder for hire he long denied, walked out of prison on Monday, September 28, after a judge vacated his murder conviction and prosecutors agreed to a plea deal, the Associated Press reported.
Wolfe, now 45, had been convicted in the March 15, 2001, killing of Daniel Petrole in Bristow, in Prince William County. Prosecutors said Wolfe, then a 19-year-old marijuana dealer, hired another young dealer, Owen Barber, to kill Petrole, his friend and supplier, over a debt of more than $60,000. Barber shot Petrole nine times as he sat in the driver's seat outside his home, according to court records cited by FOX 5 DC.
A case built on one witness
Barber was the only witness tying Wolfe to the killing. He pleaded guilty under a deal that spared him the death penalty and drew a 60-year sentence. Wolfe testified and denied any role, but he was convicted in 2002 and sent to death row.
The case began to come apart in federal court. A federal judge vacated Wolfe's death sentence in 2011 on prosecutorial misconduct grounds and barred a retrial. After the federal appeals court reversed that ruling in 2012, Prince William County prosecutors approached Barber in prison, and investigators threatened him with the death penalty if he exonerated Wolfe at a retrial, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Barber invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused to testify. In 2016, facing the prospect of another death sentence, Wolfe pleaded guilty to new charges and was sentenced to 41 years.
Virginia abolished the death penalty in 2021. Two years later, with no execution hanging over him, Barber signed a sworn declaration saying Wolfe had nothing to do with the killing and that officers had threatened him with death unless he cooperated. In 2025, a unanimous three-judge panel of the federal appeals court treated that declaration as new evidence and agreed Wolfe had been a victim of prosecutorial misconduct, which the Death Penalty Information Center describes as "egregious." Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote, "Twenty-four years ago, the Commonwealth decided that appellant was a guilty man."
The deal
Rather than try Wolfe a third time, Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Amy Ashworth agreed to a resolution. Judge Carl Weimer vacated the murder conviction. Wolfe pleaded guilty to selling marijuana and entered an Alford plea, which lets a defendant maintain innocence while accepting a conviction, to solicitation of robbery. He was sentenced to time served.
Ashworth said, "The handling of this case has also been deeply troubling," according to the Death Penalty Information Center. She described the deal as "a just and appropriate outcome under the circumstances," but added, "Nothing about this resolution changes the fundamental fact that Danny Petrole was murdered."
Petrole's family asked for privacy and said they hope to "remember Danny for his life rather than for the circumstances of his death," FOX 5 reported. Wolfe told the AP, "The thing I relish most is getting to know my nieces and nephews."
Because the plea includes convictions tied to the original events, the Death Penalty Information Center says Wolfe does not meet its criteria for its list of exonerations, even though he has been cleared of murder.
Why it matters
The Wolfe case shows how much weight a single cooperating witness can carry, and how much leverage the state holds over that witness. A man facing execution has every reason to say what prosecutors want to hear, and every reason to stay silent when telling the truth might cost him his own deal. That is why defense lawyers press so hard on what a cooperator was promised.
It also echoes the prosecutorial misconduct that unraveled the Duke lacrosse case twenty years ago. It is the kind of case the Two Taps legal panel takes apart on the show.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
