2 N.C. men wrongly convicted of murder freed after decades in prison

[Sallow]

30 years. And this is a case cited by Scalia..

Two brothers who spent more than 30 years in prison for a murder they didn’t commit were released Wednesday, a day after a judge overturned their convictions.
Henry McCollum, now 50, and one of North Carolina's longest-serving death row inmates, left the Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday morning and embraced his parents.
<snip>
McCollum and his brother have long maintained they were innocent in the brutal rape and murder of the young girl, who was found in a field surrounded by beer cans and cigarette butts.
DNA evidence later exonerated both men, linking the crime to a man named Roscoe Artis, who was already serving time in a North Carolina prison.
On Tuesday, a judge overturned their convictions, citing the fact that no physical evidence linked Brown or McCollum to the crime, and the fact that the case relied on their confessions, which McCollum has said were coerced after hours of interrogation.
“I just made up a story and gave it to them. My mind was focused on getting out of that police station,” McCollum told the News & Observer last week as he sat on death row.
In a statement, attorneys for the half-brothers said the judge’s order righted wrongs committed many decades ago against Brown and McCollum, who the lawyers say are disabled and have the intellectual ability of children.

2 N.C. men wrongly convicted of murder freed after decades in prison - LA Times

 

[Sallow]

This is basically unreal. The police basically made up confessions for these brothers.

30 years each. 60 years, gone.

 

[LiberalMedia]

I can't wait until the next article in this series comes out. You know, the one about the brothers' lawsuit for several billion dollars in reparations.

 

[EverCurious]

To be honest, I feel reparations are in order when a mistake this costly is made. I should hope that the brothers would be able to rebuild on the foundation of just reparations and be able to move on with their lives. Though they might ask billions, the court should determine an award an appropriate amount to compensate them for their lost wages and a reasonable amount for their emotional suffering in prison - though it is very difficult to put a dollar sign on that.