{"id":521555,"date":"2021-05-18T12:06:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=521555"},"modified":"2021-05-18T12:06:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:06:23","slug":"brothers-were-falsely-convicted-of-rape-murder-and-spent-31-years-in-prison-they-each-just-received-31-million-in-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/brothers-were-falsely-convicted-of-rape-murder-and-spent-31-years-in-prison-they-each-just-received-31-million-in-damages\/","title":{"rendered":"Brothers Were Falsely Convicted Of Rape, Murder And Spent 31 Years In Prison. They Each Just Received $31 Million In Damages."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">42<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbrothers-were-falsely-convicted-of-rape-murder-and-spent-31-years-in-prison-they-each-just-received-31-million-in-damages%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=521555&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1138187706-1200x800-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>In September 1983, the body of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie was found in a soybean field in Red Springs, North Carolina. The young girl had been raped and murdered, with her underwear stuffed down her throat.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the discovery, on September 28, 1983, two teenage brothers with mental handicaps were picked up by police and questioned about the girls\u2019 death. Henry McCollum, then 19, and his younger half-brother Leon Brown, then 15, were each eventually convicted of the murder and rape and sentenced to death row.<\/p>\n<p>The only evidence against the brothers were their own confessions, which they soon retracted and would say were coerced. NBC News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/brothers-awarded-75-million-after-false-conviction-rape-murder-girl-n1267727\">reported<\/a> that attorneys for the men said the two were scared teenagers with low IQs whose confessions were coerced. The two spent 31 years in prison, with McCollum on death row and Brown eventually getting his sentence changed to life in prison. Brown also reportedly needs full-time care due to mental health conditions he now suffers from due to his incarceration.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, the two men were finally released from prison after DNA evidence \u201cimplicated another man whose possible involvement had been somehow overlooked by the authorities even though he lived only a block from where the victim\u2019s body was found, and he had admitted to committing a similar rape and murder around the same time,\u201d The New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/09\/03\/us\/2-convicted-in-1983-north-carolina-murder-freed-after-dna-tests.html\">reported<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The release of the two men brought up old wounds for Sabrina Buie\u2019s family. Her younger sister, Tenita, <a href=\"https:\/\/abc11.com\/child-rape-murder-red-springs-1983-killed\/293662\/\">told<\/a> WTVD in 2014 that it \u201cfeels like hell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt feels like I\u2019m trapped in hell and can\u2019t get out cause I\u2019m wondering now will she be forgotten,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Seven years later, a jury in North Carolina has awarded each of the brothers $31 million in compensatory damages \u2013 $1 million for each year they spent in prison. In addition, the two were awarded $13 million in punitive damages, the News &#038; Observer <a href=\"https:\/\/amp.newsobserver.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article251411148.html\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first jury to hear all of the evidence \u2014 including the wrongly suppressed evidence \u2014 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,\u201d Raleigh attorney Elliot Abrams said after the verdict, according to NBC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Friday, the Robeson County Sheriff\u2019s Office, one of the defendants,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nc-state-wire-ee7361d6ff6aa0c6ee3b637db212f877\">settled\u00a0<\/a>its part of the case for $9 million. The town of Red Springs, originally named in the civil suit,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/9fde9c51585841778db53441a1a93d7a\">settled in 2017<\/a>\u00a0for $1 million,\u201d the outlet reported. \u201cFriday\u2019s judgment came against former SBI agents Leroy Allen and Kenneth Snead, who were part of the original investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The amount of money the brothers received is much larger than victims of wrongful convictions typically receive.<\/p>\n<p>As The Daily Wire previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/he-spent-19-years-in-prison-after-being-wrongfully-convicted-of-attempted-murder-he-just-won-1-6-million-in-compensation\">reported<\/a>, a Maryland man who spent nearly 19 years in prison for an attempted murder he did not commit won $1.6 million in compensation last month. In February 2020, the widow of a man who killed himself after being falsely accused of murder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/man-kills-himself-after-being-falsely-accused-of-murder-his-widow-just-got-6-million\">won $6 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In September 1983, the body of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie was found in a soybean field in Red Springs, North Carolina. The young girl had been raped and murdered, with her &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278420,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1138187706-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Brothers Were Falsely Convicted Of Rape, Murder And Spent 31 Years In Prison. They Each Just Received $31 Million In Damages.","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1138187706-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Brothers Were Falsely Convicted Of Rape, Murder And Spent 31 Years In Prison. They Each Just Received $31 Million In Damages.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}