丽贝卡·布恩 弗吉尼亚州一名男子的谋杀罪定罪已被撤销。在狱中度过25年后，他已获释，其中十余年是在死囚区度过的。
REBECCA BOONE A Virginia man’s murder conviction has been vacated and he has been freed from prison after spending 25 years behind bars — including more than a decade on death row.
贾斯廷·迈克尔·沃尔夫周一获释，标志着一场复杂法律历程的终点。2001年，他因在弗吉尼亚州布里斯托谋杀丹尼尔·彼得罗尔而一度距执行死刑仅有数日。法官卡尔·魏默在唯一将沃尔夫与这起枪击案联系起来的证人翻供后撤销了定罪；沃尔夫则就大麻和抢劫指控同意认罪，以已服刑时间折抵刑期。
Justin Michael Wolfe ’s release on Monday marks the end of a complex legal saga that at one point had him just days away from an execution date for the 2001 murder of Daniel Petrole in Bristow, Virginia. Judge Carl Weimer vacated the conviction after the only witness tying Wolfe to the shooting recanted his testimony, and Wolfe agreed to a plea deal on marijuana and robbery charges for a sentence of time served.
45岁的沃尔夫获释后的最初几个小时，仿佛旋风般迅速体验着日常生活：吃披萨、陪母亲办各种琐事、筹划全家共进晚餐。
Wolfe, 45, spent his first few hours of freedom in a whirlwind of normalcy: Eating pizza, running errands with his mom, planning a family dinner.
“我最享受的事情，就是重新认识我的侄女和侄子，”他周日下午说。“我因为一桩大麻案坐了25年牢，而如今这种东西在商店里就能买到。我觉得自己已经尽最大努力应对了。”沃尔夫的案件在21世纪初开始时引起广泛关注，揭露出一个当时令人震惊的毒品团伙，沃尔夫和弗吉尼亚州北部的另外几名青少年均牵涉其中。
“The thing I relish most is getting to know my nieces and nephews,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I did 25 years for a marijuana case, something that you can go buy at the store now. I feel like I handled it as well as I could.”Wolfe’s case drew widespread attention when it began in the early 2000s, exposing a then-shocking drug ring involving Wolfe and several other teens in northern Virginia.
当时，当局称，据估计，在被抓之前，沃尔夫等人销售的大麻和合成毒品摇头丸价值可能高达1000万美元。他们用这些钱去夏威夷和大西洋城享受豪华度假，同时维持着普通郊区生活的表象。
At the time, authorities said they estimated Wolfe and the others may have sold as much as $10 million worth of marijuana and the synthetic drug ecstasy before they were caught, using the money on high-dollar vacations to Hawaii and Atlantic City while maintaining a veneer of everyday suburban life.
检方称，沃尔夫雇用另一名年轻的大麻贩子欧文·巴伯，于2001年3月15日射杀丹尼尔·彼得罗尔。彼得罗尔既是沃尔夫高中时期的朋友，也是他的毒品供应商；检方称，沃尔夫欠彼得罗尔6万多美元。
Prosecutors said Wolfe hired another young marijuana dealer, Owen Barber, to shoot and kill Daniel Petrole on March 15, 2001. Petrole was Wolfe’s friend from high school as well as his drug supplier, and prosecutors said Wolfe owed Petrole more than $60,000.
根据法院记录，枪击发生后，巴伯告诉朋友自己做了什么，那名朋友随后报警。巴伯最终根据一项避免死刑的协议认罪，并因谋杀罪被判处60年监禁。
After the shooting, Barber told a friend what he had done and the friend notified police, according to court records. Barber eventually pleaded guilty as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, and was sentenced to 60 years for the murder.
与此同时，大陪审团以包括可判死刑的谋杀罪在内的多项罪名起诉沃尔夫。沃尔夫出庭为自己辩护，否认参与彼得罗尔之死，但他仍于2002年被判有罪，并被处以死刑。
Meanwhile, a grand jury indicted Wolfe on charges including capital murder. Wolfe testified in his own defense and denied any involvement in Petrole’s death, but he was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to death.
唯一能将沃尔夫与这起雇凶杀人计划联系起来的人是巴伯。巴伯后来撤回了自己在庭审中的证词，称沃尔夫没有参与谋杀，并称执法人员多次以死刑相威胁，迫使他配合检方起诉沃尔夫。
The only person tying Wolfe to the murder-for-hire scheme was Barber. And Barber later recanted his trial testimony, saying Wolfe wasn’t involved in the murder and that law enforcement officers had repeatedly threatened him with the death penalty unless he cooperated with Wolfe’s prosecution.
包括“美国终结死刑运动”、弗吉尼亚大学法学院“无辜者计划”在内的多个法律倡导团体为沃尔夫奔走。然而，该案在法律上取得的进展往往有限，而且每一步都要耗费数年时间。
Legal advocacy groups, including the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law and others took up Wolfe’s cause. But legal wins in the case were at times incremental, and each step took years.
沃尔夫提出上诉后，一名联邦法官认定检方存在不当行为，撤销了他的死刑判决，并下令重新审判。但巴伯拒绝为沃尔夫作证，因为他担心这会违反他在自己案件中达成的认罪协议，并可能使自己面临新的死刑审判。
After Wolfe appealed, a federal judge determined that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct and vacated his death sentence, ordering a new trial. But Barber refused to testify on Wolfe’s behalf because he feared it would violate the plea deal he had reached in his own case, potentially subjecting Barber to a new death penalty trial.
此后，双方又进行了漫长的法律争讼。2016年，沃尔夫依据一项认罪协议被重新判刑，以避免再次被判死刑，刑期最长为41年。该协议还要求他向彼得罗尔的家人道歉。
More legal wrangling ensued , and in 2016 Wolfe was resentenced to up to 41 years in prison as part of a plea deal to avoid another death sentence. The deal also required him to apologize to Petrole’s family.
“我理解自己造成的一切痛苦和伤害，”沃尔夫在2016年被判刑时说道，他直视着彼得罗尔的家人，“我知道一句道歉远远不够，但我很抱歉。”弗吉尼亚州于2021年废除了死刑。巴伯已经不再面临被判死刑的风险，他于2023年签署了一份新的宣誓陈述，坚称沃尔夫与彼得罗尔之死毫无关系。另有两人也提交了宣誓陈述，称巴伯曾分别告诉他们，沃尔夫没有参与彼得罗尔之死。
“I understand all the pain and suffering I caused,” Wolfe said at his 2016 sentencing, looking directly at Petrole’s family. “I know an apology is not enough, but I’m sorry.”Virginia abolished the death penalty in 2021. Barber, who was no longer at risk of facing capital punishment, signed a new sworn statement in 2023 vowing that Wolfe had nothing to do with Petrole’s death. Two other people also provided sworn statements that Barber had told each of them that Wolfe wasn’t involved in Petrole’s death.
去年，联邦上诉法院合议庭认定，沃尔夫是检方不当行为的受害者。
Last year, a panel of federal appellate judges agreed that Wolfe had been the victim of prosecutorial misconduct.
“二十四年前，联邦认定上诉人有罪，”美国巡回法官斯蒂芬妮·萨克（Stephanie Thacker）代表一致通过的三人法官小组写道。“从那一刻起，联邦竭尽全力确保上诉人在狱中度过余生，无视宪法、道德准则以及上诉人本人反复且始终如一的无罪主张。”沃尔夫本周获释是新认罪协议的一部分，根据协议，他承认贩卖大麻，并就教唆抢劫罪达成了一项被称为“阿尔福德认罪”（Alford plea）的修正认罪协议。阿尔福德认罪本质上允许被告在坚持自己无罪的情况下认罪。
“Twenty-four years ago, the Commonwealth decided that appellant was a guilty man,” U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. “From that moment, the Commonwealth has done everything in its power to ensure Appellant dies in prison, eschewing the Constitution, ethical strictures, and Appellant’s own repeated and consistent assertions of actual innocence.”Wolfe’s release this week came as part of a new plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to selling marijuana and entered a modified guilty plea known as an Alford plea to solicitation of robbery. An Alford plea essentially allows a defendant to plead guilty despite maintaining their innocence.
“这个制度已经崩溃了，”他的母亲斯坦伯格（Steinberg）说。“他们对他所做的是残酷且不寻常的惩罚，而他们对佩特罗尔（Petrole）一家所做的，只是延长了他们的痛苦。”威廉王子县联邦检察官艾米·阿什沃思（Amy Ashworth）在周一发表的一份声明中称，这一解决方案对于一个曾被前任政府处理不当的案件来说，是一个“公正且恰当的结果”。
“The system is broken,” his mom, Steinberg, said. “What they did to him was cruel and unusual punishment, and what they did to the Petroles was just prolong their pain.”In a statement released Monday, Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth called the resolution a “just and appropriate outcome” to a case that was mishandled by a previous administration.
“我们认识到，人们对这一解决方案会有强烈且不同的看法，”阿什沃思说，有些人认为这确立了沃尔夫的罪行，而另一些人则认为这证明了他的清白。
“We recognize that people will have strong and differing views about this resolution,” with some believing it establishes Wolfe’s guilt and others his innocence, Ashworth said.
佩特罗尔的家人也发表了一份声明，该声明包含在威廉王子县联邦检察官办公室发布的消息中。
Petrole’s family also issued a statement, included in the Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney’s office release.
他们请求保护隐私，并表示希望现在“终于可以开始翻开这一篇章，记住丹尼（Danny）生前的点滴，而不是他离世时的惨状。”斯坦伯格表示，她期待着作为一家人共同疗愈。
They asked for privacy and said they hope that now they “can finally begin to close this chapter and remember Danny for life rather than for the circumstances of his death.”Steinberg said she’s looking forward to healing, as a family.
沃尔夫正面临一段适应期。在入狱四分之一个世纪后，诸如能够选择何时睡觉、无需惩教人员陪同即可淋浴等简单的事情，对他而言都是新鲜的改变。但他希望最终能成为刑事司法改革的倡导者。
Wolfe is facing an adjustment period. Simple things like being able to choose when to sleep, and showering without a correctional officer escort are novel changes after a quarter-century behind bars. But he hopes to eventually become an advocate for criminal justice reform.
“我们刚去了 Costco，那里的购物环境真的让人应接不暇、感觉非常混乱，”沃尔夫笑着说，“我会慢慢适应的，应该没问题的。” ___ 布恩从爱达荷州的博伊西发来报道。
“We just went to Costco, and that was sensory overload,” Wolfe said with a chuckle. “I’m going to get the hang of it. I’ll be alright.” ___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.