Charles Goldblum Murder Case
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- What happens when, years after a suspected killer is sentenced to life in prison with no parole, the prosecutor comes forward and says he got it wrong - and he now believes the man he persuaded a jury to convict is actually innocent of murder?
What happens when the trial judge comes forward - repeatedly - with his own misgivings about the case and argues that the defendant should be set free?
It's a case in which even the victim, George Wilhelm - as he lay dying on a winter night in Downtown Pittsburgh in 1976 - had told police it was a different man who attacked him.
What happens?
In the case of former Pittsburgh lawyer and accountant Charles Goldblum, nothing happens.
He remains in prison.
To understand why, you have to understand that this is anything but a simple or straightforward murder case.
Consider: Charles Goldblum – while maintaining his innocence of murder - admits to having been present while the victim was fatally stabbed and failing to help him. He admits to having had criminal ties to the man he insists was the real killer. And he admits to lying to police and lying on the witness stand.
And yet, it is with the surprising support of some of those who helped put him away that Goldblum continues to pursue a new trial or clemency.
With a new book on this case in the works and the 40th anniversary of the murder nearing, here is Ken Rice's report on Charles Goldblum from 1996.