Man Convicted Of 1976 Killing In Downtown Parking Garage To Meet With Pardon Board For 8th Time
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It's been nearly four decades since the murder of a man in a downtown parking garage.
Two people were convicted, and one has since died in prison.
The other goes before the Board of Pardons again, in an attempt to gain his release for a murder he says he did not commit.
On Feb. 9, 1976, George Wilhelm was stabbed 26 times inside a car at the Smithfield Forbes Garage.
Clarence Miller was with him in the passenger seat, and Charles Goldblum was in the back seat.
After being stabbed, Wilhelm's body was dumped over the side of the garage before landing on a walkway.
He told police "Clarence Miller did this to me" when he was found, barely alive.
Miller and Goldblum were convicted because Miller told the jury Goldblum did the stabbing.
For 43 years, Goldblum has proclaimed his innocence, going in front of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons seven times.
He will appear before the board for the eighth time on Friday.
"No way should he have been convicted of the murder, and no way should he have remained in jail for more than four decades," Dr. Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist, said. "It is just a giant travesty of justice."
Judge Donald Ziegler, who presided over the trial, the prosecuting attorney Peter Dixon and Wecht have sent letters to the board on several occasions claiming the evidence and extenuating circumstances require the release of Goldblum.
"I hope this [pardon] board will show a little bit of common sense," Wecht said. "It's not a matter of mercy."
KDKA Anchor Ken Rice spoke with Goldblum behind bars back in 1996.
"I couldn't have done it," Goldblum said.
Wilhelm"s family disagrees.
KDKA spoke with the victim's nephew on the phone and although he did not want to appear on camera, he said the family has been to every Board of Pardons hearing and still firmly believes Goldblum is guilty.
The Wilhelm family said they will be there Friday when the board determines the 70-year-old Goldblum's fate.