NC: Brothers cleared of murder, rape charges after 30 years in prison

LUMBERTON, NC (WMBF) – Two half-brothers who were convicted for raping and killing an 11-year-old girl in North Carolina 30 years ago have been cleared of all charges and will be released from jail Tuesday night. Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, now middle-aged, were locked up when they were in their teens. The details of the death of Sabrina Buie that led to their conviction are graphic. Full Article

Read More

VA: Judge orders former Stafford teen’s name removed from sex offender registry, vacates sentence

Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush on Monday ordered former Stafford County teen ____ ____’s name removed from the state’s Sex Offender Registry and vacated the convictions that put him there. The order resulted from Roush’s ruling that court-appointed attorney Denise Rafferty failed to provide effective assistance of counsel to Coker in 2007 as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Since January 2009, a team of attorneys with the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law, the law school’s Child Advocacy Clinic and JustChildren/Legal Aid of Charlottesville has been working…

Read More