Carlton Fields Secures Release of Wrongfully Convicted Virginia Death Row Client After 25 Years

WASHINGTON, DC – Carlton Fields secured the release of pro bono client Justin Wolfe, who was the youngest person on Virginia's death row at the time of his sentence. On September 28, after a federal court granted habeas relief, the Prince William County Circuit Court vacated Wolfe’s convictions, including his murder conviction, and accepted a negotiated resolution. He was released that day, after 25 years in prison.

Wolfe was convicted of capital murder for a 2001 killing in Prince William County and sentenced to death. The only witness who tied him to the alleged murder-for-hire scheme later recanted and said law enforcement threatened him with the death penalty unless he implicated Wolfe. Federal courts later found that prosecutors withheld evidence favorable to Wolfe and vacated his capital murder conviction and death sentence. In 2016, facing a retrial, Wolfe pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 41 years in prison.

Carlton Fields began representing Wolfe in 2021 on a federal habeas petition. In July 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the dismissal of that petition. The court held that Wolfe had made a sufficient showing of actual innocence for his constitutional claims to be heard on the merits. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the commonwealth's petition for certiorari in April 2026.

On remand, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia entered a conditional grant of habeas relief setting aside Wolfe's 2016 guilty plea as involuntary because of prosecutorial misconduct. Under the resolution reached with the Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, Wolfe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana. He also entered an Alford plea to solicitation of robbery, which allows him to maintain his innocence of that charge. He received a 25-year sentence, which he has already served.

“After 25 years of injustice, Justin has obtained a measure of justice that long eluded him,” said Carlton Fields shareholder Scott Abeles. “When we took on Justin’s habeas petition in 2021, it was his last realistic chance of obtaining review of his convictions and relief from the legal system. In securing his release and clearing his murder conviction, we have stood on the shoulders of so many lawyers who worked tirelessly for Justin before us. This moment belongs to Justin and his close-knit family. But it bears noting that there are many, many more Justin Wolfes in the system."

The Carlton Fields team was led by Scott Abeles and included Gene Rossi, Rachel Oostendorp, retired shareholder Sylvia Walbolt, and former associate James Parker-Flynn, joined by Virginia defense attorneys Marvin Miller and Meghan Shapiro. The firm warmly recognizes the prior contributions of Ashley Parrish and King & Spalding to Wolfe’s defense, and the assistance of Kannon Shanmugam of Davis Polk and Will Marks and the Paul Weiss Supreme Court Practice Group with our efforts opposing cert.