RALEIGH — Two half-brothers from Red Springs wrongfully imprisoned for three decades in the killing of an 11-year-old girl have reached a settlement with investigators who helped put them behind bars, including the sheriff of Robeson County.
Henry McCollum and Leon Brown have sought an unspecified amount of money in damages from local and state law enforcement agents. Their motion filed Tuesday seeks a judge’s approval for a settlement that would end their lawsuit, which accused the authorities of violating their civil rights.
McCollum, 53, and Brown, 49, were freed from prison in 2014 after DNA evidence indicated that another man raped and killed the girl. They were later pardoned and awarded $750,000 each from the state through a separate process for wrongful convictions.
Settlement details weren’t disclosed. Their lawyer, Patrick Megaro, asked to seal all related documents, and didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.
The half brothers sued Robeson County Sheriff Ken Sealey, who was a detective with the Red Springs Police Department at the time of the 1983 investigation, and state and local investigators. Several lawyers representing the defendants either didn’t return messages or declined comment.
Sealey said he was unaware of the most recent development in the case but knew settlement talks were ongoing. He declined to make a specific statement because he has not spoken with his attorney.
The lawsuit names Robeson County, the town of Red Springs, Sealey, Leroy Allen, Kenneth Snead, Garth Locklear, Larry Floyd and the late Red Springs Police Chief Luther Haggins. Locklear worked for the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, Floyd worked alongside Sealey, and Snead and Allen with the State Bureau of Investigation.
McCollum was 19, and Brown was 15 when Sabrina Buie was raped and killed. Their attorneys have said they were scared, had low IQs and were berated by investigators who fed them details about the crime before they signed confessions saying they were part of a group that killed the girl.
The lawsuit claims Sealey and Snead physically and verbally threatened McCollum into confessing to the crime.
The civil lawsuit says both men were bullied and attacked by other inmates during their many years in prison.
The two were initially given death sentences. In 1988, the state Supreme Court threw out their convictions and ordered new trials. McCollum was again sent to death row, and Brown was found guilty of rape and sentenced to life.
But no physical evidence connected them to the crime. DNA on a cigarette at the scene didn’t match either one of them. Fingerprints on a beer can weren’t theirs either.
A break in the case happened after the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission got involved several years ago and had new DNA analysis done on evidence from the crime scene.
McCollum and Brown have struggled to adapt to freedom after spending most of their adult lives in prison. Megaro has said that Brown has been repeatedly hospitalized for mental health problems, including hallucinations and deep depression.
Current Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt, who didn’t prosecute the half brothers, said in an email Wednesday that no decision has been made on whether or not to pursue charges against the other man whose DNA was found on evidence at the scene. That man, Roscoe Artis, is in prison for another murder.
It was Britt who made the decision to dismiss the charges against the brothers when the DNA evidence came forward.
The brothers were prosecuted by the late Joe Freeman Britt, who died insisting they were guilty. Britt during their trial asked jurors to remain silent for 5 minutes as he monitored his watch, telling them that was the length of time it would have taken Buie to suffocate after a stick was used to force her panties down her throat.
Johnson Britt and Joe Freeman Britt are not related.
