North Carolina man released after serving more than 40 years after conviction overturned

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina man who once was on death row and then served more than 40 years in prison for a shopkeeper's slaying in a failed robbery attempt was headed home Thursday.

Attorney Theresa Newman, co-director of the Duke Wrongful Convictions Clinic, said 81-year-old Charles Ray Finch was released Thursday from Greene Correctional Institution. He was picked up by relatives and the clinic's other co-director, attorney Jim Coleman, who were taking him to Wilson, Newman said.

Video from WRAL-TV showed Finch, dressed all in white and wearing sunglasses, leaving the prison in a wheelchair.

U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle had ordered Finch's release earlier Thursday. In January, an appeals court ruled that evidence casts doubt on Finch's murder conviction. Newman said Finch's conviction was overturned and that prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to retry him.

Read more: https://www.journalnow.com/news/state/north-carolina-man-released-after-serving-more-than-years-after/article_be27e902-4f31-521c-9d7f-71870f9fdfb5.html
(Winston-Salem Journal)