Two men wrongfully sent to death row for rape and murder in 1983 awarded US$75 million in damages
- Henry McCollum and Leon Brown were released from prison in 2014 after DNA evidence that pointed to a convicted murderer exonerated them
- Lawyers for the men have said they were scared teenagers who had low IQs when they were questioned by police and coerced into confessing
A US 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 received 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 be innocent, found them to have been demonstrably and excruciatingly wronged, and has done what the law can do to make it right at this late date,” Raleigh lawyer Elliot Abrams said after the trial. Abrams was part of the brothers’ legal team.
McCollum and Brown have pursued the civil case against law enforcement members since 2015, arguing that their civil rights were violated during the interrogations that led to their convictions.
The two were released from prison in 2014 after DNA evidence that pointed to a convicted murderer exonerated them. They were teenagers when they were accused of the crime, which happened in Red Springs in Robeson Count, North Carolina.
Lawyers for the men have said they 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. Both were convicted and sentenced to death.
