North Carolina to pay $7.5M over wrongful conviction
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and its insurers will pay $7.5 million to the estate of a North Carolina man who was wrongfully convicted of a 1976 murder.
Charles Ray Finch died in January at 83. He was freed from a North Carolina prison three years ago after a federal judge overturned his murder conviction for which he spent 43 years in prison. The parties reached a settlement agreement that was finalized Tuesday, The Wilson Times reported.
In December 2019, Finch filed a federal lawsuit against Wilson County, its current sheriff, two former deputies and two NCSBI employees, The News & Observer reported at the time.
The lawsuit accused the respective agencies of corruption, specifically that the former deputies framed Finch for murder, an SBI agent covered for the sheriff’s office and an SBI general counsel later hid evidence that would have cleared Finch.
The original civil complaint