DNA Frees Two US Men Jailed for 1983 Rape and Murder

New DNA evidence has freed a death-row inmate after he spent three decades in prison for rape and murder. (Representational pic)

Henry McCollum, 50, walked out of Central Prison in Raleigh, hugged his mother and father and thanked God for his release.

His half-brother, 46-year-old Leon Brown, also had his conviction in a 1983 rape and murder overturned on Tuesday.

McCollum spoke briefly to reporters before getting into the passenger seat of his father's car, where a reporter had to show him how to buckle the seat belt. He had never used a seat belt of that design.

McCollum said he hoped to go home and take a bath. There will be changes to which he'll need to adjust - particularly the Internet and cellphones, he said.

A judge overturned their convictions after another man's DNA was discovered on a cigarette butt left near the girl's body. Tuesday's ruling is the latest twist in a notorious legal case that began with what defense attorneys said were coerced confessions from two scared teenagers with low IQs. McCollum was 19 at the time and Brown was 15.

Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser said the new DNA results contradicted the case prosecutors put forward.

He said he was vacating their convictions and ordering their release "based on significant new evidence that they are, in fact, innocent."

The DNA from the cigarette butts doesn't match Brown or McCollum, and fingerprints taken from a beer can at the scene aren't theirs either, attorneys say. No physical evidence connects them to the crime.

Both were initially given death sentences, which were overturned. At a second trial, McCollum was again sent to death row, while Brown was convicted of rape and sentenced to life.

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DNA Frees Two US Men Jailed for 1983 Rape and Murder