Charles Finch
Charles Ray Finch from North Carolina spent 43 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
In 1973 he was wrongfully convicted in a murder during an attempted robbery of a grocery store. He was sentenced to death, but U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional. Finch was resentenced to life in prison.
Finch pleaded not guilty, and human rights organizations spent years gathering evidence to support him. In 2019, a federal appeals court threw out the conviction, ruling that Finch was denied a fair trial flawed lineup law enforcement used to obtain an eyewitness identification of him as the suspected killer.
In June 2021, Finch filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for his years in prison. In January 2022, he died at the age of 83.
MASS MEDIA ABOUT THE CASE:
“He went in at age 40, the prime of his life, and he came out in a wheelchair having suffered a stroke, and he suffered another stroke since then,” says David Rudolf, a criminal defence lawyer who worked on the case.
The Guardian
“Let me out free, they let me out with nothing. Just threw me in the street like a dog,” Finch said.
WRAL
CASE STATUS:
The initiative group has requested the clarification from US President Joseph Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland. The initiative group believes it is important to fight against wrongful convictions and, if necessary, will provide legal and financial assistance to the family of the victim.
Letter to Biden
Letter to Garland
