Justin Wolfe on Virginia death row

JustLisa · #1 11-25-2005, 09:30 PM

I was just watching a show about him on the Discovery channel a few days ago and it shocked me that he was sentenced to the death penalty. I was wondering if anyone here knows his case or knows him personally.

chatterboxchick · #2 11-25-2005, 09:51 PM

never heard of the guy

BillieJo · #3 11-25-2005, 09:56 PM

I can't find anything on google. was he executed?

JustLisa · #4 11-26-2005, 12:25 AM

Here is some info. on him.. He was convicted for hiring a guy to kill his friend/drug dealer. They all had outwardly appearances of being good kids, went to college, had money, they just got all into the marijuana trade. The one friend that got caught for shooting the guy said that he was hired by Justin. They had his cell phone records that showed that the shooter was in constant contact with Justin right before and after the murder. It was really his word (the one who got caught as the shooter) against Justin's. I of course don't know all the details, but from what I saw I can't believe that this kid got sentenced to death.. it made me so sad for him and his mom too... Sad for them all..

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Justin Michael Wolfe (“Wolf”) dealt high-grade marijuana in Northern Virginia. He was charged with and convicted of several offenses which included the murder for hire of fellow drug dealer Daniel Petrole. Pursuant to Virginia Code Section 18.2-31(2), murder for hire is a capital offense. During the penalty phase of the capital murder trial, the jury found both vileness and future dangerousness and sentenced Wolfe to death.

The Supreme Court of Virginia consolidated the automatic review of Wolfe’s death sentence with his appeal of the capital murder conviction and his appeal of the non-capital convictions.

The Supreme Court of Virginia reviewed Wolfe’s conviction and death sentence and did not find reversible error on March 3, 2003. Nor did the court find any reason to commute Wolfe’s death sentence; therefore, it affirmed the judgment of the circuit court.

On March 27, 2003 the lawyer who defended Wolfe was suspended from practicing law for repeatedly mishandling the cases of other clients.

softheart · #5 11-26-2005, 12:15 PM

I have never heard of him either, but I did find him on Virginia's DOC site so he wasn't executed. You can go here and put in his name and get where he is at if you would like to write him JustLisa.

http://www2.vipnet.org/cgi-bin/vadoc/doc.cgi

softie

susan the finn · #6 11-28-2005, 04:51 AM

I found a lot of news articles of him on Google. Some of those had his picture also. He had a date on July but has still all federal appeals left. Here's some info on his case (even it's from pro DP site): http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/Pending/05/jul05.htm

Susan

LenaInVA · #7 11-28-2005, 01:41 PM

I know Justin Wolfe -- and I knew Danny.

IMO, he is right where he belongs. That's ALL I'll say about it.

mam1959 · #8 12-08-2005, 12:25 PM

Lena - I live within 5 miles or so Justin's mother and am fascinated by the case because I have always wondered what would happen if a defendant from a middle to upper middle class family in a wealthy suburb received the death penalty. Now we will see. There is a feeling among many in the suburbs that the death penalty happens to "them" - meaning the poor, career criminals, and yes, drug dealers, as Wolfe and his co-defendant and victim all were. It strikes me that once well off surburbanites realize that "them" may be "us" or that "them" aren't that different from "us", a different attitude about state sponsored killing may obtain. I hope so. For those of you not familiar with the Northern Virginia suburbs, an average house in the Chantilly Va. area now costs upwards of 600-800 thousand dollars. The average family income is at least 150k a year - and while not Beverly Hills, it is clearly an upper middle class area. People here typically think about the death penalty only in terms of an abstraction - well, now it is here in concrete form.

Knowing the victim as you do, I respect your feelings about Wolfe. But I do think there is a distinction that can be drawn as between feeling convinced as to Wolfe's culpability and guilt (from reading parts of the trial record, I am persuaded as to his guilt as well) and believing he is deserving of death. That is perhaps what you meant when you state he is where he ought to be - in prison. But the response now to Danny Petrole's tragic, stupid, and yes, frankly socio-pathic death is to engage in yet more killing, this time behind the cloak of the Commonwealth? I don't get it...at the end of the day we just have more pine boxes - and what do we get from that?

techietype · #9 12-08-2005, 01:03 PM

While I think that having money certainly will help you avoid the death penalty, it does not insure it. If you are a serial killer like Ted Bundy, or for that matter John Wayne Gacy, all the money in the world is probably not going to save you. In a more typical case it probably will, O.J. Simpson being the prefect example.

LenaInVA · #10 12-09-2005, 01:52 PM

Hi Man --

We must be neighbors! I have mixed feelings on the death penalty. I do believe in the death penalty, but not as it is currently applies. In this case, I do feel that Justin should be put to death - primarily due to my emotional involvement. Therefore, I cannot exactly see the case for what it is worth as I might a complete stranger.

mam1959 · #11 12-12-2005, 01:16 PM

Techie - the most relevant example of what money can do is not OJ Simpson (his attorneys did win it for him by persuading the judge to sit an absymally dim jury, but it was not a death case, and indeed the prosecutors wanted to avoid cries of racism in refraining to bring a death case), but that of Robert O. Marshall in New Jersey. I am persuaded of his guilt, (he was convicted of murdering his wife for insurance proceeds), but I have believed all along he would never face the executioner's gurney because as an upper middle class insurance executive in a nice Jersey shore town (also with a grown son now connected to Hollywood) his appeals would have, and indeed have had, considerable inertia. Indeed a federal judge has just overturned his death sentence, after 18 years on death row. So Marshall will complete his days with the anonynmity of a lifer. I don't mean to sound insensitive, but this is a case I would have put down in my bet book, so to speak, long ago.

As for Wolfe, my heart goes out to his mother, who is frantically trying to save her son's life. From a reading of the record, she made some parental mistakes (she didn't question him very hard about where all the drug money was coming from), but guess what - even parents of great kids make mistakes....but for the grace of God goeth I....her pain is palpable - and so is the urgency of her effort. And note that Ms. Steinberg (Wolfe's mother) is by every single account an educated, decent, generous and nice person - what we would want all of our neighbors to be. And she is now trying to prevent another death...against a justice system in Virginia that is almost medieval in its inflexibility (and heck I am a political conservative on most issues and still come to this conclusion).

In any event, as tragic and wasteful as Wolfe's crime is, I find it easy to not have any doubts about holding him culpable for his actions (without prevarication), but at the same time don't see where a Commonwealth sponsored killing will make the situation any better. Criminals often act out against the "man" - the society or 'system" they believe (often narcissistically) conspires to "get them". The death penalty only supports this belief, and although it may inspire brief blips in the public's confidence over the criminal justice system (e.g., Timothy McVeigh), when the Government puts itself in the position, just as the killers themselves do, of whom decides who is discarded and who does not, the conclusion at least to some extent that the State is akin to the criminals and that the penalty is part of an arbitrary or capricious system is hard to deny. We can hold murderers accountable without killing them. Plus, the death penalty is a small, put wasteful (and ridiculously over-politicized) part of the criminal justice system, a system that has real and almost intractable challenges. Let's get rid of the millions upon millions spent on the death apparatus, and find a better avenue to spend resources.

jmminvirginia · #12 02-01-2006, 08:54 PM

How can a Jury of people.... people just like Justin Wolfe is a person make the decision they made based on the evidence in this case? thedeathpenalty)the guy who PULLED THE TRIGGER, Killed, Danny) GETs 38 years in prison and more than likely will not serve the whole sentence.....dont get me wrong i dont oppose the death penalty for people who CONFESS, or if there is ABSOLUTE POSITIVE CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE DNA, ETC..which this case has none of from what i can see. Justin may or may not be guilty BUT THE DEATH PENALTY ISNT A SUITABLE PUNISHMENT. OWEN the trigger man SHOULD get it if anybody should after all he made the ULTIMATE DECISION he chose to pull the trigger he had PLENTY OF TIME to think about what he was going to do or what he was asked to do. The system we call justice isnt much of a system as far as im concerned ......but who am i ? (A person)

BY THE WAY NEXT TO TEXAS VIRGINIA HAS THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF PEOPLE EXECUTED IN THE U.S.A .............god bless america...and have mercy on the souls of these JURY members (people) if this man is innocent.

J.J · #13 02-03-2006, 07:59 AM

Ditto - May God truly have mercy.....how they can live with the knowledge that they agreed together to commit state sanctioned murder - I don't know.....

QQin4meboo · #14 03-05-2006, 02:09 PM

I hate to say this , but its kind of like when crack was a problem it was **theghettosproblem** and no drug war , now ** thesuburbs have ** meth issues ** so people are taking notice ..
perhaps this case , will draw some money and attention to ** death row issues**

LHS · #15 03-05-2006, 05:25 PM

I feel for both Owen Barber and Wolfe. But, more so for Owen.

I have a bizare tie-in to this story, I currently live in the house where Owen Barber, Jr. had lived previously. I purchased the house from his father. His father was very kind and sweet. He was also very much still mourning the loss of his wife. Owen's mother had died Just a few years before her son committed the crime of murder. I cannot help but think that her death during Owen's formative high school years had an impact on him. He was drug addicted and owed Justin Wolfe money. In my opinion he was a pawn that Justin used to exact revenge on Danny with. I have also wondered if the fact that his father was selling the family home and moving away had left him with a sense of abandonment. My heart really goes out to this kid.

As for Justin, does he deserve the death penalty? No. It boggles my mind that in our grand state of Virginia that sentences vary so much. I just recently heard of a case where a man had killed a small child, his stepchild and he only received ten years. Does he deserve life? No, but he does a great deal of time.