2 men’s convictions overturned in ’83 slaying

Associated Press

LUMBERTON, N.C.

One of North Carolina’s longest-serving death-row inmates and his half brother are being freed after three decades in prison after another man’s DNA was discovered on a cigarette butt left near the body of a girl the siblings were convicted of killing.

On Tuesday, a judge overturned the convictions of Henry McCollum, 50, and Leon Brown, 46, in the 1983 rape and murder of Sabrina Buie, citing the new evidence that they didn’t commit the crime. The ruling is the latest twist in a notorious legal case that began with what defense attorneys said were coerced confessions from two scared teenagers with low IQs. McCollum was 19 at the time, and Brown was 15.

Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser said the new DNA results contradicted the case prosecutors put forward at the men’s trials.

He said he was vacating their convictions and ordering their release “based on significant new evidence that they are, in fact, innocent.”

Family members of the men gasped and some sobbed as the judge announced his decision to the packed courtroom. Brown smiled and shook a defense lawyer’s hand, and McCollum looked spent and relieved.

“We waited years and years,” said James McCollum, Henry McCollum’s father. “We kept the faith.”

Defense lawyers petitioned for their release after a recent analysis from the butt pointed to another man who lived near the soybean field where Buie’s body was found in Robeson County. That man already is serving a life sentence for a similar rape and murder that happened less than a month later.

Because of paperwork, it likely will take until today for the men to walk free, said Keith Acree, spokesman for the state prison system. They are required to return to the prisons where they have been serving time before they can be processed out.

The men’s freedom hinged largely on the local prosecutor’s acknowledgement of the strong evidence of their innocence.