North Carolina jury awards $75m to brothers wrongly convicted of 1983 murder
Henry McCollum and Leon Brown spent decades in jail before DNA evidence cleared them of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl
Henry McCollum after his release from prison in 2014. He and Leon Brown have been awarded $75m over their wrongful conviction for a 1983 murder. Photograph: Michael Biesecker/AP
Henry McCollum after his release from prison in 2014. He and Leon Brown have been awarded $75m over their wrongful conviction for a 1983 murder. Photograph: Michael Biesecker/AP
TheAssociatedPress
Sat 15 May 2021 20.02 EDT
A jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case has awarded $75m to two, intellectually disabled half-brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.
In 1983, Henry McCollum and Leon Brown were convicted or raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl in Red Springs North Carolina. After 31 years of maintaining their innocence in prison, the two had their conditions overturned in 2014 and now they were just awarded $75 million from a jury in a federal civil rights case.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case has awarded $75 million to two Black, intellectually disabled half brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. The eight-person jury on Friday decided Henry McCollum and Leon Brown […]
A jury in a North Carolina federal civil rights case has awarded US$75 million to two black, intellectually disabled half-brothers who spent decades behind bars after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.
The eight-person jury on Friday decided Henry McCollum and Leon Brown should receive US$31 million each in compensatory damages, US$1 million for every year spent in prison, the News & Observer reported.
The jury also awarded them US$13 million in punitive damages.
“The first jury to hear all of the evidence including the wrongly suppressed evidence found Henry and Leon to