WILSON, N.C. – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has agreed with The Duke Law Innocence Project's assertion that it's unlikely jurors would have convicted Charles Ray Finch of the 1976 murder of Richard "Shadow" Holloman if they had known about flaws in the police lineup and witness pressure from prosecutors.

The three-judge ruling returned the case to the North Carolina-based federal court with a unanimous opinion that Jim Coleman, attorney for Finch and head of Duke University's Wrongful Conviction Clinic, says proves that past death penalty cases deserve a second look.

"On one of our principal issues, which is that the lineup from which Mr. Finch was identified was extremely suggestive,” he states, “the Court of Appeals agrees with that and held that it likely violated the Constitution."

Advocates say Finch narrowly escaped death. The investigation led to an eyewitness who admitted to being influenced by the prosecution.

After the conviction, Finch was sentenced to execution in the gas chamber on Oct. 4, 1976, the same day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that North Carolina's mandatory death penalty law was unconstitutional.

Kristin Collins, a spokeswoman for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, says Finch's case isn't the first time mistaken identity has led to sentences of death or life in prison.

"There are people still on death row today who are there largely because one person identified them as the person they saw,” she points out. “Those were identifications that were often done in questionable ways before we had laws that tried to prevent mistaken identifications and actually wouldn't be legal according to today's standards."

Advocates say that if prosecutors look at the federal court's opinion and the evidence, litigation won't be necessary for Finch to be freed.

Coleman says since Finch has spent more than 42 years of his life in prison, he plans to approach North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein to help with the 80-year-old's immediate release.

"Our intent is to now go to the attorney general to join us in asking the federal district court to grant the writ of habeas corpus, agree that the conviction violated the Constitution, and to immediately release Mr. Finch from prison," he states.

According to the center, 92 percent of cases were tried before 2008 reforms designed to prevent mistaken eyewitness identifications.

The new laws set strict standards for eyewitness lineup procedures.


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Setting aside funding for a new South Dakota prison is a thorny issue for state lawmakers this year. There is also renewed talk about the state's recidivism rate and whether programming is consistent enough to fix any problems.

The Prison Policy Initiative said South Dakota leads the U.S. and most democratic countries in the rate of people who are incarcerated. It also ranks high when measuring the number of people who wind up back in the criminal justice system.

Jenna Borseth, assistant professor of political science at the University of South Dakota, said she thinks state and federal policymakers do not let meaningful reform efforts breathe.

"We're not actually following through with our ideas," Borseth contended. "We're throwing it at the wall, and if it doesn't stick immediately, we just throw it in the garbage."

Borseth, who took part in a discussion hosted by the South Dakota Humanities Council, also suggested there is a consistent fear crime is too high, even though many numbers are trending downward. Last year, South Dakota launched a new program which employs reentry coaches, transitional case managers and includes enhanced community support.

Borseth argued there should be an emphasis on preventive approaches before someone even encounters the legal system.

"Improving our educational system, reducing our poverty rate, having adequate health care accessibility, whether that's mental health care, physical health care," Borseth outlined.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation reported people spending too much time incarcerated disrupts family life and parental incarceration creates an unstable environment for kids and can have lasting effects on their development and well-being.

There is contentious legislative debate this session about building a new men's prison amid overcrowding issues.

By Kyla Russell for WISH-TV.
Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the WISH-TV-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration.

The Indiana House has passed an extension to the state's Lifeline Law, sending it to the governor's desk for signature.

The state's current law, passed in 2012, grants criminal immunity to anyone who calls 911 to ask for help for someone drinking underage and experiencing a medical emergency. The expansion aims to also protect the person drinking.

"Currently, the person in need of medical attention is not protected," Purdue University Student Body Vice President Rebecca Siener, a junior, said.

She spent some of her college career as a resident assistant.

"Our students are more fearful of the repercussions of underage drinking than the potentially life threatening condition of alcohol poisoning," Siener said.

She, along with her fellow student government leaders, spent the last year trying to get protection for all parties. She said she also assisted in writing the new legislation.

Siener watched the House pass the expansion in an 87-3 vote on Thursday. It passed in the Senate earlier this session.

"The last step is the signing ceremony," Siener said. "The governor has the option to veto it, but we don't see him vetoing it, and then it will go into effect July 1 of 2025, and we will have changed state law."

The new changes may soon be etched in law, but Siener says she stands on the backs of students who came before her. In 2012, when the Lifeline Law first passed, it was Purdue student government leaders who pushed for the change.

"The former Purdue Student Body President Brett Highley came up with the idea of the Indiana Lifeline Law and having a medical amnesty policy within Indiana and they proposed this to former Sen. (Jim) Merritt," Seiner said. "Former Sen. Merritt agreed to author it."

Purdue students formed the Indiana Lifeline Law Coalition to get the original law passed. It's made up of college students at various Indiana universities united in advocating for the policy.

The coalition still stands today.

"Here we are, 12 years later, trying to expand it," Siener said. "If students could change law in 2012 to save lives, we can do so, and, we will do so, again in 2025."


Kyla Russell wrote this article for WISH-TV.


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Next month, the city of Morgantown, West Virginia, will ask residents to vote on whether to keep or eliminate a city ordinance banning camping on public property, enacted last year.

Sarah Hutson, a volunteer for the advocacy group West Virginia Can't Wait, said Morgantown has struggled with affordable housing and a lack of resources for years. She pointed out the city has only 28 shelter beds for an unhoused population of around 150 individuals.

"This is an expensive waste of taxpayer money to just put folks in jail rather than actually provide solutions that would end homelessness in Morgantown," Hutson argued.

An estimated 150 cities in 32 states have passed ordinances aimed at discouraging homelessness, according to the National Criminal Justice Association. The U.S. Supreme Court has also weighed in on the issue. In a 2024 ruling, justices found a camping ban in Grants Pass, Oregon, did not violate the Constitution's cruel and unusual punishments clause.

Hutson added the number of Morgantown residents who came together and gathered signatures on a petition to put the issue on the ballot highlights the momentum against criminalizing not having a place to live.

"It was an incredible force of effort," Hutson observed. "It was also easy, in that most people that we talked to, at most doors that we knocked, were more than happy to sign. They also see that this is not a solution."

Hutson noted groups like West Virginia Can't Wait have continued to push affordable housing and increased services for unhoused people to the top of local city council agendas, statewide.

"To work with our elected officials on city council to introduce pro-housing solutions and ordinances that would help make a difference in this fight." Hutson urged.

Data from the Pew Research Center show in cities across the nation, places where rents increased faster than the national average have seen sharp spikes in the number of homeless residents.


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