*Two Black men with intellectual disabilities have been awarded $75 million by a jury in North Carolina due to their wrongful conviction and death sentence for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in 1983.
Per the Raleigh News & Observer, brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown each spent 31 years in jail for a crime they did not commit. Both men will now collect $31 million each, $1 million for every year they spent in prison, according to the report.
“The first jury to hear all of the 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,” Elliot S. Abrams, an attorney representing the brothers, told News & Observer. “The jury could not have sent a stronger message that the citizens of this country will not tolerate law enforcement misconduct and will no longer blindly believe the testimony of law enforcement over that of marginalized people.”
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Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, two intellectually disabled half brothers, spent more than 30 years in prison for a crime they did not commit. One of the parties named in their civil suit has settled. https://t.co/8EISdVPzbe
— The News & Observer (@newsobserver) May 14, 2021
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.
“For more than 37 years, Henry and Leon have waited for recognition of the grave injustice that law enforcement inflicted upon them,” Abrams told News & Observer. “Today, a jury did just that, and have finally given Henry and Leon the ability to close this horrific chapter in their lives.”
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