Falsely Accused Brothers Awarded $75M After 30 Years in Prison
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June 24, 2021
(Photo: NAACP.org)
In 2014, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission found that DNA testing verified a match to the next-door neighbor of the murder victim - the convictions of McCollum and Brown were on the road to being overturned. In September 2014, a judge ruled McCollum and Brown were, in fact, innocent.
Brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown spent 30 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit.
The two brothers were convicted at 19 and 15 and were sentenced to be executed. The two had been wrongfully convicted of a 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. At 16, Brown became the youngest individual to be on death row in North Carolina's history. Both McCollum and Brown claimed for years their confessions at the time of the crime were coerced.
In 2014, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission found that DNA testing verified a match to the next-door neighbor of the murder vic...
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