In 1983 two mentally disabled black children were coerced into confessing to the rape and murder of a little girl in North Carolina that they had nothing to do with.
North Carolina’s longest-serving death row inmate and his half-brother serving a life sentence have been exonerated and released from prison after spending more than 30 years behind bars for a rape and murder they did not commit.
Robeson County superior court acted with lightning speed to free the two men, Leon Brown and Henry McCollum, who were 15 and 19 at the time of their arrest in 1983. It was testimony to the overwhelming strength of the evidence that was presented to the court that judge Douglas Sasser cleared them of the murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie on the first day of a hearing to consider new DNA evidence in the case.
The evidence absolved McCollum and Brown, now 46 and 50, of any link to biological material collected at the crime scene. It also found a positive match with a known sex offender from the same small town who was living just feet away from the field in which Buie’s body was found.
I hope you have the time to read the entire Guardian Article as well as the New York Times article which provides more details.
As recently as 2010, the North Carolina Republican Party put Mr. McCollum’s booking photograph on campaign fliers accusing a Democrat of being soft on crime, according to The News & Observer.
In 1994, when the United States Supreme Court turned down a request for review of the case, Justice Antonin Scalia described Mr. McCollum’s crime as so heinous that it would be hard to argue against lethal injection.
Justice Harry A. Blackmun, who was an open opponent of the death penalty and had voted to hear the case, noted that Mr. McCollum had the mental age of a 9-year-old and that “this factor alone persuades me that the death penalty in this case is unconstitutional.”
My emotional rage about this story really set me off today. I am hoping just typing this out will help somehow, but I'm not counting on it. I live in NC so will plan to try and keep up with this story. I know they are free but how can justice ever be obtained for these two men after everything that has been done and taken away? How many others are out there? I'm sorry this is so short but it's really hard to find words.
Also I haven't written a diary in a long time so I probably screwed up some things....sorry in advance : )
Thanks for reading.