Leon Brown, Henry McCollum

NORTH CAROLINA (USA): 2 BROTHERS PARDONED, CLEARING WAY FOR THEM TO RECEIVE $750K

June 4, 2015: Gov. Pat McCrory issued pardons for Henry McCollum and his half brother Leon Brown, clearing the way for them to receive $750,000 in compensation from the state. On Sept. 2, 2014 a judge vacated their convictions citing new DNA evidence that points to another man killing and raping 11-year-old Sabrina Buie. Both men were released on Sept. 3, 2014. McCollum spent three decades on death row, Brown was serving a life sentence.
Defence attorneys say the brothers were scared teenagers who had low IQs when they were questioned by police and coerced into confessing. McCollum was then 19, and Brown was 15 at the time of their arrests in 1983. Current Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt, who didn't prosecute the men, has said he's considering whether to reopen the case and charge the other man, whose DNA was found on a cigarette butt recovered from the crime scene. The cigarette butt was recently tested as part of an investigation by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, a one-of-its-kind investigative panel. That man whose DNA was discovered, Roscoe Artis, is already serving a life sentence for a similar rape and murder that happened less than a month after Sabrina's killing. Today, Gov. Pat McCrory said his decision came after a comprehensive process that included meetings with Brown, who's 47; and McCollum, who's 51. "I'm not going to rush into making an important decision. I'm going to do the right thing," he said. "We are so grateful for the governor granting us a new lease on life, for our family and those who believed in our innocence, and all of the lawyers who worked so hard to get us here today," the men said in a statement released by their lawyer, Patrick Megaro. The brothers didn't attend the governor's announcement. They said earlier this year that they have had a hard time since their release. When they left prison, officials gave each of them $45. Lawyers at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation held a fundraiser the night they were exonerated. Others have donated money after reading about the case. The pardon qualifies the brothers for $50,000 from the state for each year they were imprisoned, with a limit of $750,000.
The compensation still needs to be approved by a state agency, but it is considered a formality. (Sources: Associated Press, wcax.com, 04/06/2015)