Fourth Circuit Finds That Justin Wolfe Proved Actual Innocence, Allowing His Defaulted Claims to Move Forward
In Monday’s Actual Innocence episode of Undisclosed, we talked about how Dion Taylor could be used as the basis for a Schlup actual innocence claim in federal court, in the process reviving Adnan Syed’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in connection the AT&T disclaimer. In the episode, we discussed how similar actual innocence claims were made by other people in the Fourth Circuit whose cases we covered on the podcast: Ronnie Long and Charles Ray Finch. What I didn’t realize at the time was that there is now actually a third Fourth Circuit case involving a Schlup actual innocence claim. This one was not one we discussed on the podcast, but it was one discussed by Serial. More specifically, it was a case brought to Serial by Adnan Syed himself.
In episode 6 of Serial, Sarah Koneig starts talking about the Justin Wolfe case as follows:
I heard about this other case, of a kid named Justin Wolfe. Actually Adnan mentioned the case to me, kind of in passing. I can’t remember how he heard about it. He reads a lot of different stuff in prison. Anyway, we had been talking about the cell records, and how they were used in Adnan’s case, and Adnan said that in this other case of Justin Wolfe, cell records had also been used against him, but then Justin Wolfe’s conviction was overturned, in part because of the cell records.
I wrote about the Justin Wolfe case a few times on this blog, including a post in which I wrote that the State’s basic theory of the case was that Justin Wolfe,
then a nineteen-year-old marijuana dealer in northern Virginia, hired his close friend and fellow drug dealer Owen Barber IV to murder drug supplier Daniel Petrole in March 2001….Significantly, “Barber was the prosecution’s key witness,” in that he was “the only witness to provide any direct evidence regarding the ‘for hire’ element of the murder offense and the involvement of Wolfe therein.”…In exchange for Barber’s testimony that he was Wolfe’s hired triggerman, the Commonwealth dismissed its capital murder charge against Barber, and he pleaded guilty to non-capital murder. Barber was sentenced to sixty years in prison, of which twenty-two years were suspended.
Well, just a couple of weeks ago, the Fourth Circuit (the circuit that covers Maryland) issued its decision in Wolfe v. Dotson, 2025 WL 1859732 (4th Cir. 2025). Specifically, Justin Wolfe tried to make a Schlup actual innocence claim based on a new declaration by Barber in which Barber
averred that Appellant “had nothing to do with the killing of [] Petrole[,]” there was “no agreement between [Appellant] and [Barber] to kill [] Petrole[,]” and “[Appellant] did not know [Barber] was going to kill [Petrole].”…Barber explained that he had originally testified against Appellant because Barber “felt that [he] had to choose between falsely testifying against [Appellant] or dying” given that the Commonwealth threatened him with the death penalty. Id. Barber reaffirmed his subsequent, multiple recantations of his incriminating trial testimony, even though he “had no assurance that the [Commonwealth] would not retaliate against [him] if he testified in [Appellant]’s favor.”…
Barber went on to declare that after Appellant was granted habeas relief in Wolfe II, Newsome, Conway, and Ebert arrived at Barber’s prison without notice and without providing Barber an opportunity to contact his attorney. Barber stated that he had initially told Newsome, Conway, and Ebert that he would testify at Appellant’s re-trial consistent with his federal testimony exculpating Appellant. Barber noted that Newsome, Conway, and Ebert then told Barber he would “be charged with capital murder…[and therefore subject] to the death penalty” if he “testified at [Appellant]’s retrial as he did in federal court.”…As a result of that encounter, Barber “decided [he] was too afraid to testify further in [Appellant]’s case.”… Barber “did not want to be retried for capital murder and, given [his] confessions, likely sentenced to death after trial.”…
Barber then explained that he had exercised his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in subsequent proceedings because he “believed the [Commonwealth] would act on its threats if [Barber] testified truthfully.”…Barber stated, “[f]rom that point in 2012 until very recently, I had resolved that I would never again offer another statement or testify in [Appellant]’s case, as I still believed the Commonwealth would follow through on its threat to prosecute me again.”…If not for the threats against him by the Commonwealth, Barber “would have testified truthfully — in [Appellant]’s favor — at [Appellant’s] retrial, as [he] had in federal court.”…
Barber went on to explain that he “was asked recently by [his] attorney if [he] would be willing to make a new statement about the case, including about [Appellant]’s involvement.”….Barber understood that such a statement could be offered in connection with Appellant’s post-conviction proceedings. Further, Barber understood that such a statement “[would] not benefit [Barber] in any way other than getting the truth out there.”…Barber concluded his declaration by stating that Appellant had “served a lot of time for a crime that he did not commit” and that if he “had been able to freely testify in [Appellant’s] favor at [Appellant’s] retrial, [he] would have.”
The Fourth Circuit found that Wolfe had established actual innocence Schlup, meaning he is now allowed to proceed on his procedurally defaulted claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and vindictive prosecution.
-CM