RALEIGH, N.C. — After nearly 43 years in prison, 81-year-old, Charles Ray Finch is finally a free man.
Finch was released Thursday after the courts ruled he didn’t get a fair trial after serving time for a 1976 Wilson County murder.
WNCN reports Finch was convicted of murder by one black and 11 white jurors in the murder Richard Holloman who owned a gas station.
The Duke Law Innocence Project later took up the case 15 years ago. The team uncovered enough evidence that the federal appeals court said no reasonable juror would have convicted Finch. It was also taken into account, how the evidence was handled by investigators at that time.
The Wilson County district attorney has 30 days to decide if they’ll retry the case. However, Finch’s attorneys don’t think the case will be retried.