Hogan Lovells Helps Falsely Sentenced Men Win $75M By
Sameer Rao | June 6, 2021, 8:02 PM EDT
Leon Brown, left, greets his half-brother Henry McCollum, in the blue shirt, soon after a judge exonerated them in 2014 for the 1983 rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie in Red Springs, North Carolina. (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
On May 14, after decades of incarceration for violent crimes they did not commit, half-brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown received some welcome news: An eight-member jury in Raleigh, North Carolina s federal district court had awarded them $75 million. granted both men $1 million in compensatory damages for each of their 31 years behind bars. It also ordered punitive damages worth $13 million from the two former State Bureau of Investigation agents that the jury found violated the men s civil rights during the 1983 interrogations that led to the half-brothers being convicted of raping and mur
The first hearing in a series of death penalty cases ordered reopened by a landmark state Supreme Court ruling began last week in a Wake County courtroom.
BBC News
By Sam Cabral
image captionHenry McCollum (pictured) and his half-brother Leon Brown spent 31 years in prison
A historic $75m (£53m) settlement awarded to two North Carolina brothers incarcerated for more than three decades over a crime they did not commit has brought the issue of wrongful convictions back into the limelight.
Henry McCollum and his half-brother Leon Brown were twice convicted for the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. In 2014, the emergence of new DNA evidence led to their exoneration and full pardons the following year.
On Friday, they received $31m in damages each - $1m for every year spent in prison - and $13m in punitive damages. The payout represents the largest combined settlement in a wrongful conviction case in US history, according to the brothers lawyers.
The jury also awarded McCollum and Brown $13 million in punitive damages.
According to The Washington Post, the combined $75 million payout is the highest in U.S. history in a wrongful conviction case and is the largest personal injury award in North Carolina.
McCollum and Brown, who have IQs in the 50’s, were both teenagers when law enforcement officers allegedly coerced them into confessing to a crime that they did not fully understand. McCollum was sentenced to death, while Brown was sentenced to life in prison.
In 2014, the brothers were released from prison after the DNA of murderer
Roscoe Artis placed him at the scene of the crime. McCollum and Brown received full pardons in 2015.
UpdatedTue, May 18, 2021 at 8:07 pm ET
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Henry McCollum is shown in 2014 after his release from a North Carolina prison. He and half brother Leon Brown were “demonstrably and excruciatingly wronged” when they were wrongfully convicted twice on coerced confessions, their attorney said Friday. (AP Photo/Michael Biesecker, File)
RALEIGH, NC During the nearly 31 years Henry McCollum served time on a North Carolina prison s death row, wrongfully convicted of the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, 42 inmates were executed.
For most of those years, he had no reason to think he wouldn t be next.
On Friday, McCollum celebrated his freedom.