North Carolina Jury announces $84million reparation for 2 wrongfully convicted African-Americans

Washington, May 18, 2021: After pursuing a federal civil rights case, a jury has awarded two African-American half brothers $84million in compensation for being sentenced and jailed for a crime they did not commit.

This is the largest jury verdict ever to be returned in a wrongful conviction case resulting in reparation damages according to the lawyer, Des Hogan who is representing the two brothers. The two brothers have already spent 31 years in prison after being sentenced for the 1983 rape and murder of an 11 year old girl in the state of North Carolina. The brothers who are intellectually disabled, were 15 and 19 at the time say they were forced to sign confessions.

Both Henry Lee McCollum and half brother Leon Brown were convicted of the crime but the convictions were overturned in 2014 when samples of DNA from the crime scene where the girl’s body was found, were analyzed and found to belong to another man. McCollum and Brown who had both pursued a civil rights case were awarded the $84million by a jury on Friday in terms of compensatory and punitive damages.

Speaking on the occasion, the lawyer Hogan said the decision by the jury sends a strong message across the community, law enforcement and society in general that in this day and age, rights of socially disadvantaged groups particularly people of color who were long marginalized in specially in rural settings are now harder and harder to ignore. He said the brothers are thrilled to have won and that they are happy that the jury has proven the sheriff at the time to be wrong. They feel vindicated after a long journey of seeking justice.

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