{"id":623126,"date":"2026-05-04T15:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/623126\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:37:09","slug":"charles-mcneair-released-from-north-carolina-prison-after-46-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/623126\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles McNeair released from North Carolina prison after 46 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYeah. Mr. McNair, can you please say something? How are you feeling? Anything you want to say? Thank you. Who came to pick you up today? Who’s here for you? OK.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Charles McNeair released from North Carolina prison after 46 years, battling for his freedom<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"WXII<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpdated: 10:41 AM EDT May 4, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAfter 46 years behind bars, a Davidson County man was released from prison. Charles McNeair, who was accused of breaking into a woman’s home and raping her, has always maintained his innocence. Advocacy groups said he was wrongly incarcerated.The Lexington Police Department, which was the lead investigator on the case decades ago, no longer has the file pertaining to the charges. Current LPD chief Robby Rummage wrote a letter to the governor in April 2025 asking for clemency on behalf of McNeair due to the lack of evidence for keeping him incarcerated.Get the latest news stories of interest by clicking hereAt age 16, McNeair pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and was sentenced to life in prison back in 1979. Today, the same charge is a class C felony punishable up to 232 months in prison, or 20 years, depending on a person’s prior criminal record. McNeair has been in prison for a total of 46 years so far for his charges.McNeair said, \u201cThank you, Jesus,\u201d as he was released from the Randolph Correctional Center on Monday morning. Keep up with the latest news and weather by downloading the WXII app here.McNeair embraced a friend upon his release and left with a family member. Inmates cheered him on and congratulated him as he walked out a free man. Last week, the North Carolina Post Release Supervision and Parole Commission approved his release.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tRANDOLPH COUNTY, N.C. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

After 46 years behind bars, a Davidson County man was released from prison. <\/p>\n

Charles McNeair, who was accused of breaking into a woman’s home and raping her, has always maintained his innocence. Advocacy groups said he was wrongly incarcerated.<\/p>\n

The Lexington Police Department, which was the lead investigator on the case decades ago, no longer has the file pertaining to the charges. Current LPD chief Robby Rummage wrote a letter to the governor in April 2025 asking for clemency on behalf of McNeair due to the lack of evidence for keeping him incarcerated.<\/p>\n

Get the latest news stories of interest by clicking here<\/a><\/p>\n

At age 16, McNeair pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and was sentenced to life in prison back in 1979. Today, the same charge is a class C felony<\/a> punishable up to 232 months in prison, or 20 years, depending on a person’s prior criminal record. McNeair has been in prison for a total of 46 years so far for his charges.<\/p>\n

McNeair said, \u201cThank you, Jesus,\u201d as he was released from the Randolph Correctional Center on Monday morning. <\/p>\n

Keep up with the latest news and weather by downloading the WXII app here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McNeair embraced a friend upon his release and left with a family member. Inmates cheered him on and congratulated him as he walked out a free man. <\/p>\n

Last week, the North Carolina Post Release Supervision and Parole Commission <\/a>approved his release. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yeah. Mr. McNair, can you please say something? How are you feeling? Anything you want to say? Thank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6484,36605,4,450,29380,269919,269920,156633,36010,15131,196041,5987,24800,451,3423,15137,271,3,15132,15133,15134,15135,269922,269923,3076,16674,29920,452,453,269921,2394],"class_list":["post-623126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-april","tag-behalf","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-charge","tag-charles-mcneair","tag-charles-mcneair-released-from-prison","tag-clemency","tag-evidence","tag-flipboard","tag-google-discover","tag-google-news","tag-governor","tag-headlines","tag-interest","tag-late-news-story","tag-life","tag-news","tag-news-google","tag-news-google-com","tag-newsbreak","tag-newsbreakapp-com","tag-north-carolina-prison","tag-prior-criminal-record","tag-prison","tag-release","tag-smartnews","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-wanda-cox","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}