RALEIGH, N.C. (WRAL) – A convicted murderer in North Carolina is free after spending 40-years behind bars.
Gary Goldman spent more than half his life in prison, first for killing a store clerk in Georgia, then for the death of a North Carolina State student.
The now 61-year old was convicted for the 1983 death of graduate student Betsey Rosenburg.
She was struck and killed with a metal pipe.
Goldman says he was innocent.
His family former Duke Coach Bucky Waters and even the victim’s sister believed he didn’t do it.
According to the state’s Center on Actual Innocence, there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
Goldman has been eligible for parole since 2000 and now, 19-years later, he gets his chance to be a free man.
“Early on I felt like it would be overturned,” Goldman said of his conviction. “And when it wasn’t, I kind of felt that I was guilty of the one in Georgia and this is just karma, an extension of that. I really wasn’t bitter about it.”
The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence says they’re continuing their work to get Goldman exonerated from the crime.
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