Thread by @helenprejean

NEWS: Charles Ray Finch has been officially exonerated. He is the 166th innocent person freed from death row in the U.S. Charles was convicted and sentenced to death way back in 1976. He spent 43 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Welcome home, Charles!

Charles’s case is a cautionary tale about the injustices that occur when police jump to conclusions, prosecutors try to win at all costs, and judges ignore clear evidence of innocence.

It was late at night on February 3, 1976, when Richard Holloman was killed outside his convenience store in Wilson, North Carolina. There was only one eyewitness: Lester Jones, an employee at the store. Sheriff’s deputies, led by Chief Deputy Tony Owens, arrived to investigate.

Lester’s description of the killers was not very specific: “3 Black Males.” One of the men had “a stocking over his head,” drew a sawed-off shotgun, and shot Mr. Holloman. Another man wore a “black cap” and the other carried a “toboggan.”

Lester also told deputies that the three men drove away in “a black Pontiac with a light out in the back.”

Another man told deputies that he had seen Charles Ray Finch at the convenience store 3 hours before the shooting. That’s not a surprise. Charles lived nearby and shopped at the store often.

Deputy Owens later admitted that he was thinking about Charles as a suspect before he even arrived at the crime scene to investigate. Charles was arrested for a grocery store robbery a few months earlier, but the charges were dropped when the victim said Charles wasn’t involved.

Deputies put out an all points bulletin for Charles’s blue Cadillac even though Lester said that the killers drove a black Pontiac. Charles and James Lee Lewis, a passenger in his car, were arrested a few hours later. Deputies found a shotgun shell in the backseat.

Deputy Owens arranged a lineup and Lester picked Charles out as the person who shot Mr. Holloman. Lester did not identify James Lewis. Charles was charged with capital murder and the trial began in June 1976 – only four months after the crime.

Remember how vague Lester’s description of the shooter was at first? At the trial, the description totally changed. Lester now said that he could describe the shooter’s height, weight, complexion, clothes, and facial hair.

Charles did not testify at the trial, but he did have alibi witnesses. Those witnesses testified that Charles was at a parlor in downtown Wilson, N.C., playing poker at the time the shooting occurred.

When he was first arrested, Charles told deputies that James Lewis said that he was the one who shot Mr. Holloman. Charles had picked up James later that night and James said that he “had done the job.” James matched Lester’s description of the second man.

Lester told the jury that Charles shot Mr. Holloman with a sawed-off shotgun. A deputy cut open the shotgun shell found in Charles’s car and the prosecutor told the jury that the pellets were very similar to a pellet found in Mr. Holloman’s body.

The prosecutor was required to prove that Charles used a sawed-off shotgun to kill Mr. Holloman, so these were very important pieces of evidence. The jury deliberated for less than two hours. They found Charles guilty and he was sentenced to death.

Charles worked with lawyers or acted as his own lawyer in efforts to overturn his conviction over the next 43 years. In 2001, @DukeInnocence began representing Charles. They attacked his conviction on several grounds.

First, Lester’s identification was suspect because of the lighting outside the convenience store and the fact that Lester said that he had his back turned before the shooting.

Second, the lineup where Lester identified Charles as the shooter was flawed. Deputy Owens later conceded that the lineup was “unfair.”

Third, Lester actually did identify James Lewis as one of the shooters in a photo lineup about two weeks after the shooting. This was never disclosed to Charles’s lawyers. At the 1976 trial, Deputy Owens testified that Lester didn’t identify anyone other than Charles.

It was also revealed that the state police had examined the shotgun shell found in Charles’s car and determined that it could not be matched to pellets found in Mr. Holloman’s body. This evidence was never disclosed.

Judge Wayland Sermons threw out Charles’s appeal. The judge ruled that the prosecutor’s failure to disclose important evidence was “harmless” and that the jurors were qualified to compare the shotgun pellets themselves.

Earlier this year, a federal appeals court finally granted relief for Charles, writing that he had “overcome the exacting standard for actual innocence” by “demonstrating that the totality of the evidence ... would likely fail to convince any reasonable juror of his guilt.”

Charles was released from prison in May. He is 81 years old and in a wheelchair. He told reporters, “I’m just glad to be free. I feel good.” The prosecutor had a month to decide whether to retry the case. It was announced yesterday that all charges against Charles were dismissed.

You can learn more about Charles Finch and his case by reading an excellent case summary put together by the National Registry of Exonerations (@exonerationlist): law.umich.edu/special/exoner…