New DNA evidence cleared the names of two half-brothers three decades after they were convicted of a 1983 murder.
Two mentally disabled half brothers, Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, were declared innocent and ordered freed by a judge on Tuesday, after spending three decades in prison for the 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in North Carolina.
Henry McCollum (left) and his brother, Leon Brown in booking photos.
Handout / Reuters
Their convictions were overturned after new DNA evidence pointed to a different man, who authorities never had suspected, even though he lived a block away from where the victim's body was found and had admitted to a similar rape and murder, The New York Times reported.
Henry McCollum, 50, walked out of prison on Wednesday. He was one of North Carolina's longest-serving death row inmates.
McCollum sits quietly as thunderous applause rings out around him in a Robeson County courtroom after a judge overturned his conviction on Tuesday, Sept. 2, in Lumberton, N.C.
AP Photo/The News & Observer, Chuck Liddy
McCollum hugged his parents and thanked God after walking out of Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C. He told reporters that he hoped to get home and take a bath and that he would need to adjust to changes like the internet and cellphones, the Associated Press reported. A reporter had to show McCollum how to buckle his seat belt in his father's car.
Leon Brown, who was serving a life sentence, is also expected to be free later Wednesday.
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1t0nHow
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