Instead, it was his first as a free man after almost 14 years on death row.

Chapman, 40, was released from Central Prison on Wednesday after Catawba County District Attorney James Gaither Jr. dismissed murder charges against him.

Last November, Superior Court Judge Robert C. Ervin found that an investigator withheld evidence and lied in court, and that Chapman was inadequately defended by his court-appointed attorneys.

Ervin sent the case back for another trial, but Gaither, in dismissing the charges, said there was not enough evidence for a retrial.

Chapman is the seventh innocent death row prisoner in North Carolina to be released, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington.

He was sentenced to death in 1994 in the slayings of Betty Jean Ramseur and Tenene Yvette Conley in Hickory. Their bodies were found in abandoned houses in August 1992. Chapman has always denied killing them.

Ervin's 186-page order said a lead investigator, Dennis Rhoney, withheld information that a key witness in the Ramseur case identified someone other than Chapman in a photo lineup. Rhoney, who worked for the Hickory Police Department, also lied during his trial testimony against Chapman, Ervin wrote.

Ervin added that a report by a forensic scientist showed that one of the victims likely died of a drug overdose, rather than by foul play.

"Everything that you can possibly imagine going wrong in a capital case went wrong," said Jessica Leaven, a lawyer who handled Chapman's case. "It's a prime example why the death penalty should be abolished."

Efforts to reach Rhoney, now a deputy in the Burke County Sheriff's Office, were unsuccessful.

The truth of testimony by Rhoney in previous trials also must be questioned, said Frank Goldsmith, another lawyer who worked on the case. Both lawyers called for an investigation into his conduct.

"I don't think it gets much worse than perjury by an officer of the law," Goldsmith said.

Chapman's appeals attorneys also argued that his trial attorneys, Thomas Portwood and Robert Adams, failed to interview several critical witnesses and were "excessive users of alcohol."

Portwood, who admitted he drank more than a pint of 80-proof rum every evening during several death penalty trials, has been challenged in court for his representation of at least two other men, one of whom was executed in 2001.

Adams told the N.C. State Bar that he drank three scotches a night but that it did not affect his trial performance, according to The Charlotte Observer. A 1998 psychiatrist's evaluation of Adams, ordered by the bar, concluded that Adams "had a drinking problem" and referred him to Alcoholics Anonymous, according to a bar discipline order.

Portwood died in 2003, and Adams could not be reached.

Chapman said he harbors no resentment toward Rhoney or the criminal justice system.

"I have no bitterness," Chapman said. "I feel better without it."

But he missed much of the growth of his two sons during his years on death row. Chapman talked with them Wednesday on a cell phone he could barely figure out how to use.

When prison officials told Chapman he was going home Wednesday, he didn't get his hopes up.

'Still shocked'

"I'm still shocked," Chapman said. "I didn't believe it until I was actually outside."

The prison jumpsuit Chapman wore was replaced by a crisp white dress shirt and black slacks. He was looking forward to relaxing Wednesday night and having steak for dinner -- a step up from the double-decker bologna and cheese sandwich he requested.

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