Jonathan Drew, The Associated Press Published Wednesday, September 3, 2014 9:57AM EDT Last Updated Wednesday, September 3, 2014 10:46AM EDT<\/p>\n
LUMBERTON, N.C. -- New DNA evidence has freed a death-row inmate and his half-brother after they spent three decades in prison for rape and murder. <\/p>\n
A judge overturned the convictions of Henry McCollum, 50, and Leon Brown, 46, after another man's DNA was discovered on a cigarette butt left near the body of a girl the siblings were convicted of killing in 1983. Tuesday's ruling is the latest twist in a notorious legal case that began with what defence attorneys said were coerced confessions from two scared teenagers with low IQs. McCollum was 19 at the time and Brown was 15. <\/p>\n
Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser said the new DNA results contradicted the case prosecutors put forward. <\/p>\n
He said he was vacating their convictions and ordering their release \"based on significant new evidence that they are, in fact, innocent.\" <\/p>\n
The DNA from the cigarette butts doesn't match Brown or McCollum, and fingerprints taken from a beer can at the scene aren't theirs either, attorneys say. No physical evidence connects them to the crime. <\/p>\n
Both were initially given death sentences, which were overturned. At a second trial, McCollum was again sent to death row, while Brown was convicted of rape and sentenced to life. <\/p>\n
Family members of the men gasped and some sobbed as the judge announced his decision to the packed courtroom. Brown smiled and shook a defence lawyer's hand and McCollum looked spent and relieved <\/p>\n
\"We waited years and years,\" said James McCollum, Henry McCollum's father. \"We kept the faith.\" <\/p>\n
Defence lawyers petitioned for their release after a recent analysis from the butt pointed to another man who lived near the soybean field where Sabrina Buie's body was found in Robeson County. That man is already serving a life sentence for a similar rape and murder that happened less than a month later. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See the original post: Jonathan Drew, The Associated Press Published Wednesday, September 3, 2014 9:57AM EDT Last Updated Wednesday, September 3, 2014 10:46AM EDT LUMBERTON, N.C. -- New DNA evidence has freed a death-row inmate and his half-brother after they spent three decades in prison for rape and murder. Continue reading
\nDNA frees death-row inmate and his half-brother after 30 years in prison<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"