RALEIGH -- Willie Womble has served 38 years for a 1975 murder and had those charges dismissed on Friday. Womble always maintained his innocence.

Womble answered a judge's questions regarding the murder,

"'Did you do the murder?'

'No Ma'am'

'Did you have any part in the murder?'

'No Ma'am.'"

Womble and another man were both convicted of killing Granville County convenience store clerk Roy Bullock, but that other man, Joseph Perry, told the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission that Womble is innocent, he wasn't even there. Womble, who is illiterate, signed a confession to the crime in 1976 but told the Commission that a Durham Police detective beat that confession out of him. Womble is now a free man.