DNA evidence shows brothers, who are severely
disabled and were teenagers when arrested in 1983, were wrongly convicted.
Two mentally impaired half-brothers have
been freed after serving three decades in a US prison
for the rape and murder of a child after DNA
evidence proved they were not guilty.
A judge in Robeson County said on Tuesday that
Henry Lee McCollum, 50, North Carolina state's
longest-serving death-row inmate, and Leon Brown,
46, were innocent of the 1983 rape and killing of 11-
year-old Sabrina Buie after the evidence came to light.
Both are severely intellectually disabled and were
teenagers at the time of their arrests in 1983.
Following false confessions, McCollum was given a
death sentence and Brown was serving life for the rape.
"This case highlights in a most dramatic manner the
importance of finding the truth," said Ann Kirby, Brown's lawyer.
"Today, truth has prevailed, but it comes 30 years too
late for Sabrina Buie and her family, and for Leon, Henry, and their families.
"Their sadness, grief, and loss will remain with them forever."
North Carolina state law now requires murder interrogations to be recorded or videotaped, but at
the time the brothers were convicted such laws were not in effect.
There were no recordings of the confessions, which
contained details that authorities now acknowledge were factually impossible.