N Carolina man released after serving more than 40 years

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — 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.

The Wilson Times reports that Finch's daughter, Kay Jones Bailey, said after the hearing Thursday that she "knew the miracle was going to happen just didn't know when. It's been worth the wait. It's been worth the fight."

In 1976, Finch was sentenced to die, according to the Death Penalty Information Center . The state Supreme Court reduced his sentence to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court that the state's death penalty law unconstitutional.

In an interview earlier this week, Finch told WNCN that he forgives the person who identified him as the killer "because he didn't know what he was doing." That person had said the killer was wearing a three-quarter length jacket. Finch said a detective had him wear a coat in the police lineup — and Finch was the only one wearing a coat in that lineup.

"When I was picked up, they didn't question me or nothing. The put me there in...