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."
"Both Wolfe and his mother testified to Wolfe's weight loss, a worsened skin condition, and increased anxiety as a result of his transfer to segregation," wrote the judge.
The judge found that the Department of Corrections violated federal rules by not asking his permission before transferring Wolfe. He ordered Wolfe returned to death row within 10 days and that all of his previous conditions and privileges there be restored.
Jackson also directed the Department of Corrections to ask the court's permission before it transfers Wolfe to another prison or alters his conditions of confinement while the state's appeal is pending.
Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said Wolfe was sent back to death row the same day Jackson ruled last week. Because it was a legal matter, Traylor said he could not comment on Jackson's finding that the department violated a federal rule.
Also in his Nov. 22 order, Jackson granted the state's request for a stay on his July order overturning Wolfe's convictions and sentences and ordering a new trial, pending the attorney general's appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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