RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia authorities say they will appeal a judge's ruling that would have freed a former death row inmate.
A spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Thursday the office would file the appeal. The decision came a day after a federal judge in Norfolk ordered Justin Wolfe freed within 10 days because prosecutors had failed to retry him within the 120 days he gave them when he tossed Wolfe's conviction earlier this year.
Wolfe spent more than a decade on death row for the murder-for-hire of his drug supplier.
Attorney General spokesman Brian Gottstein says Wolfe is not housed in a state prison, so the decision whether to release him will be made by local authorities.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson barred prosecutors from retrying Wolfe.
