Wrongfully Convicted: Henry McCollum & Leon Brown

Small Town Mysteries

When an 11-year-old girl named Sabrina Buie is found murdered, Henry McCollum and Leon Brown are brought in for questioning and eventually confess after long interrogations. They are 19 and 15-years old, respectively, and both have intellectual disabilities, with Leon Brown not even able to read his own signed confession. They are charged with rape and murder and are given the death penalty.
Years go by and both men are adamant about their innocence. What evidence exists that ties them to the crime, and what evidence exists that can exonerate them? And if they didn't commit the crime, who did?
Sentenced to death at 16, Brown became the youngest person on North Carolina’s death row, and McCollum became North Carolina’s longest-serving death row prisoner.
Stay tuned toward the end for some statistics on wrongful convictions and a discussion about what wrongful convictions mean for the family of victims.
Sources:
1) https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4493
2) https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/north-carolina-jury-awards-death-row-exonerees-henry-mccollum-and-leon-brown-75m-for-their-wrongful-capital-convictions
3) https://nccadp.org/stories/henry-mccollum-leon-brown/
4) https://ncpolicywatch.com/2022/11/02/court-of-appeals-backs-suspension-for-lawyer-who-swindled-wrongfully-convicted-black-men/
5) https://wcsj.law.duke.edu/2021/10/event-recap-henry-mccollum-leon-brown-attorneys-talk-wrongful-convictions/
6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_McCollum_and_Leon_Brown
7) https://abc11.com/child-rape-murder-red-springs-1983-killed/293662/
8) https://www.theroot.com/my-sister-s-convicted-killer-was-innocent-23-years-lat-1790877141
9) https://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/2022/02/01/beneath-the-statistics-the-structural-and-systemic-causes-of-our-wrongful-conviction-problem/#:~:text=Studies%20estimate%20that%20between%204,result%20in%20a%20wrongful%20conviction.
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