Tricky legal situation? Walk the wife over to the appeals court, get the conviction overturned based on new evidence and let the guy go. Only lawyers could consider this a tricky legal thing. More like a judge trying to protect his name after getting publicly hoaxed.
“get the conviction overturned based on new evidence”
The problem here is, her accusation wasn’t the only evidence against him. There were 2 other independent witnesses (presumably not opioid addicts) who claimed to see him trying to throw her overboard, so her recanting doesn’t change their testimony.