WOLFE, DANNY
GENERAL INFORMATION
DOB: September 19, 1950
Race: White
Gender: Male
CRIME AND TRIAL
County of conviction: Camden
Number of counts: 2
Race of victim: White/white
Gender of victim: Male/Female
Date of crime: February 20, 1997
Date of sentencing: January 4, 1999
TRIAL COUNSEL: Kimberly Shaw and Nancy McKerrow
LEGAL STATUS:
Current proceedings: Retrial pending
Last judicial decision: Convictions, death sentences, and denial of
post-conviction relief reversed by
Wolfe v. State, 96 S.W.3d 90 (Mo. banc 2003)
CURRENT COUNSEL:
Thomas Jacquinot
Missouri Public Defender System
Capital Litigation Office, Western District
Scarritt Building, Suite 200
818 Grand Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64106
(816) 889-7699
REPORTED OPINIONS:
--Convictions, death sentences, and denial of post-conviction relief reversed by Wolfe v. State, 96 S.W.3d 990 (Mo. banc 2003)
--Conviction and sentence affirmed on direct appeal by State v. Wolfe, 13 S.W.3d 248 (Mo. banc Feb. 22, 2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 845 (Oct. 2, 2000).
SIGNIFICANT LEGAL ISSUES:
--Trial counsel held ineffective for failing to test hair samples that were later determined to be indistinguishable from those of the state's star witness (the hair had been found in the back of the victim's car and in a box of ammunition found in a dumpster, and counsel argued -- without any supporting evidence -- that the hair did not belong to Mr. Wolfe.
--Trial court's exclusion of evidence that prosecution's key witness had fabricated a story about her own kidnapping when she was twelve years old
--Prosecution's untimely disclosure of identity of defendant's co-inmate, who testified that defendant confessed to the crime
--Trial court's refusal to compel prosecution to disclose evidence of uncharged crimes committed by defendant's fellow inmate
--Exclusion of affidavit undermining key witness's testimony as hearsay and lacking in foundation